Safe
by AddioKira
Summary: Thor has returned to Asgard, and his life slowly starts to return to normal. But when a new danger threatens Asgard, Thor's only hope lies in a mysterious artifact located on Midgard - one that only Loki knows how to find. Can Thor trust his brother to help him save their realm - or does Loki have his own agenda? (Based on R. Wagner's Das Rheingold; rated for coarse language.)
1. Chapter 1

**Part 1: Midgard**

_Der Welt Erbe_

_gewänn' ich zu eigen durch dich?_

_Erzwäng' ich nicht Liebe,_

_doch listig erzwäng ich mir Lust?_

_ -Alberich_

Ten minutes went by, and Jackie still hadn't come back with the beers. Flossie sighed and scrunched a hand into the curls on the right side of her head, fluffing them out. The bar was a little too noisy for comfortable conversation, and she had run out of things to say to Cass about five minutes ago. Jackie was the glue that held their little trio together, and without her - and the social lubrication that the beers would provide - the two had lapsed into an awkward silence that simmered under the bustle around them.

"So," said Cass after five more minutes had passed, "do you see Jackie?"

Flossie craned her neck for about the twentieth time and looked toward the bar. "Huh-uh," she said. Jackie's disappearance was a real feat, as she was usually the most visible person in any situation, particularly social. She was six feet tall and statuesque, with a stunning sheaf of red hair that fell to her waist - when it wasn't bound up under her hat for work. Jackie's uniform fit her beautifully, and caused Flossie no end of envy. Flossie was short and broad, with a stubborn tummy that refused to deflate, no matter how many crunches she did, or how many sessions she put in on the elliptical machine in her apartment building basement. Flossie's uniform belt cut into her gut just where she didn't need cutting, and her holster added bulk just where she didn't need bulk, so she avoided looking in full length mirrors after dressing for work in the mornings.

_And anyway_, she always thought as she suited up in the locker room, _when I'm working I'm not some pretty lady, I'm a cop. _To which she always added the depressing addendum: _Rent-A-Cop_.

Still, a job was a job, and this was a good one. It was easy, it paid well enough to allow her to afford a studio in Astoria. And it had led her to meet Jackie and Cass, the former of whom made friends quickly and easily, and who now referred to Flossie and Cass as her "work besties." The three of them went out for beers several nights a week, with Jackie dominating the conversation as well as any stray male attention that might pass their way. "C'mon, my Single Ladies!" she'd say as they left work for the bars, and Flossie always went home just as single, with only a hangover to accompany her morning if she hadn't had enough waters.

"What?" asked Cass, cupping her hand around her ear.

"I said I don't see her - wait - there she is." Flossie waved her hand in the air at Jackie. "Hey!" Jackie was carrying no beers, but was sporting a self-satisfied smirk on her face.

"Oh Jesus God," Flossie said to Cass. "She's got another one."

Jackie slid into the bench next to Flossie, and Jackie's catch set the tray full of beers, waters, and shots that he'd been carrying onto their table. He was older - _mid-life crisis_, thought Flossie - balding, and careful to hide it - _in denial _- and extremely beefy. _Gym rat - good lord_. Flossie knew the type, had dated a guy she'd met in Police Academy who'd been a serious gym rat. She'd dumped him after going on a date during which the featured conversation had been the means by which he intended to increase the circumference of his neck. In Flossie's humble opinion, there was no one on God's green earth who was more stultifyingly dull than a gym rat, and she knew Jackie shared this opinion. So this was one of Jackie's "tricks."

Cass had started calling them that - "tricks" - as kind of a mean joke, but it had stuck. Jackie could size up a bar within five seconds of entering it, and if there was no one who merited her serious attention, she found the guy most likely to get flirted into buying her trio as many rounds of drinks as possible before he had to be shaken off. Flossie hadn't ever liked this method of getting drinks - she could buy them herself, thank you, and often did, even with a "trick" on the line - but Jackie always seemed to enjoy her little manipulations, so Flossie had never said anything against it. Doing so might put Jackie in a huff, and risk this part of her social life - hell, these nights with Jackie and Cass _were_ her social life these days. She wasn't going to give them up just because she thought Jackie was being a bit cruel to over-eager strangers.

"So this is Al," said Jackie, lengthening the name in a flirtatious way -_ A-a-al_. "Al, this is Cass and Flossie."

"Ladies," said Al, as he slid into the seat next to Cass. He'd brought four of everything, Flossie noticed - four beers, four shots, four waters. He was in this for the long haul. Al started passing the shots around. "It's not every day I'm surrounded by three gorgeous women!" He held up his shot glass. "To fate."

"Fate," muttered Flossie. She glanced to Jackie, who was giving Al her _extra special _smile, and then at Cass who shrugged and drank her shot. The rest followed suit, Flossie gagging a bit as the liquor went down. It was Jäeger - of _course_ this guy would buy them Jäegers - and the aftertaste lingered in her mouth like an unsavory memory. She reached for her beer and downed a quarter of it to wash the bitterness down. The beer was cheap, but it was cold and tasted clean.

"So Al was just telling me," said Jackie after swigging some of her own beer, "that he's a _magician_." Probably only Flossie and Cass could hear the tone of subtle mockery in Jackie's statement. Al grinned self-importantly.

"Only an amateur," he said, "but I do carry around a few tricks." He reached into his jacket pocket, taking something out that he cupped in his hand. "This is an angel catcher," he said, turning his hand to Cass. "See? I caught one." He turned his hand to Jackie and Flossie then, showing a small hand mirror. "Two... he said aiming the mirror at Jackie, then flicked his hand toward Flossie, so that she could see her own reflection in the mirror. "Three," he finished. Cass rolled her eyes at Flossie.

"That's _so_ sweet," cooed Jackie. "So what else can you do?"

"We-ell," said Al, whipping out a deck of cards with a practiced air, "pick one." He fanned out the deck to her, grinning. Jackie picked a card, and Al snapped the deck. "Memorize it. You got it?"

"Uh, yeah, I think I got it," said Jackie. Cass widened her eyes in a this-is-so-not-worth-a-beer sort of way, but said nothing as Jackie tucked the card into the middle of the outstretched deck.

"Okay," said Al, "watch close." He shuffled the deck a few times, at one point even riffing the cards from hand to hand. Jackie slugged at her beer, half-watching, until Al displayed a single upturned card with a flourish. "Is this you milady?" The card was, of course, the queen of hearts.

Flossie choked on her beer a little, only barely managing not to spit it across the table and onto Cass. Cas was faring no better, covering her mouth but not hiding the fact that she was snickering. When Flossie had recovered herself, she saw Al, staring over at her with a look that shocked her - one of barely-disguised malevolence. It lasted only for a moment before he turned his gaze back to Jackie, all smiles again.

"That was_ amazing_," said Jackie. "Do you want another beer?"

"It would be my pleasure, said Al. "I shall return, ladies."

When Al was at a safe distance, Cass gave Jackie a meaningful look. "Oh my _God_," she said.

"Whatever, he's harmless," said Jackie. "And he's good for a couple more rounds."

Flossie said nothing, thinking about that look he'd given her, after she'd laughed at his awful trick. And suddenly she didn't want to be here, didn't want to drink any more beers that Al bought them, wanted nothing more to be back in her own little apartment with her feet on the sofa watching whatever trashy show she could find on her TV. "Look," she started.

"Oh come _on_," said Jackie, already knowing what Flossie had been about to say. "Just one more drink and then we'll go, okay?"

"Well," said Flossie, "just one more. But then I really need to go."

Jackie flashed Flossie the huge, kind of dazzling grin she always gave when she got her way. Flossie ignored the squirmy feeling in her stomach and finished the dregs of her beer.

When Al got back with fresh beers, he started in on Jackie almost immediately. "So," he said, "what brings you ladies here tonight?"

"Oh, we always go out after work," said Jackie, flipping her hair over one shoulder.

"You work together?" asked Al. "What do you do?"

Jackie flashed a coy smile. "Security."

"Re-eally?" asked Al, in a what's-a-nice-girl-like-you-working-in-a-man's-job sort of way. "Bodyguards?"

"Not exactly," said Jackie, and Al nodded.

"Nah, that'd be a pretty tough job," he said, and Flossie had to look away, huffing her breath out. Did he just seriously _neg_ them?

"Well actually," said Jackie, "we don't even really know what we're providing security for." She leaned forward, elbows on the table, and Flossie knew they were in for it. She'd heard the phrase "dining out" on a story before, but she'd never fully grasped what it meant until she'd seen Jackie talk about their job - which, technically, they weren't supposed to do.

"Hey, Jackie," said Flossie, "let's not talk about work, huh?"

"Oh come on!" said Jackie. "We can trust Al, right? We can trust you," she said, turning to him. "Right?"

"Of course," he says, with a little dipping bow over the table. "It sounds like quite a mystery."

"It's a _total _mystery," said Jackie. "I mean, all they told me when I got the job, right, was that I was going to work an eight hour shift guarding not a building, right, but a room. Just one room, in the basement of a building, in the middle of Manhattan. For eight hours. And all three of us, right? On the same shift?" She looked to Flossie and Cass for confirmation; Cass nodded, Flossie sat still.

"We don't even know who it's even for - a company? Or just someone who wants something guarded? We have no idea," she continued. "I mean, my paystubs say 'The Reiner Company, LLC,' but I tried looking them up by their tax number, and there's no other information about them besides the name and address. No CEO, no founder, no nothing - it's like they don't even exist."

"Maybe it's a front," suggests Al, leaning across the table himself, looking enraptured by Jackie's story and her enthusiasm in telling it.

"Maybe," Jackie agreed, lowering her voice to force Al to lean in even further. "I mean, some of the other guards say it's just some guy, Mr. Reiner I guess, but you'd think he'd just put his stuff in safe deposit box, or a bank vault or _something_. But I'm not complaining - I mean, they're paying us to basically sit around for eight hours a day, right? Pretty nice if you can get it." Jackie threw her hands up, leaning back into the booth seat, with another dazzling smile. "So that's it."

"You've never had anyone try and break in?" asked Al.

"Nah," said Jackie. "Nobody could get through the keycard locks to even get to where we are, and if they did..." she made a gun shape with her thumb and forefinger, aiming it at Al's head. "Pow!" she said, cocking the finger up.

"Nice," said Al, with a smile that was almost a smirk.

Flossie was finishing her second beer by then and itching to get out onto the street, and never see Al ever again. She had a strange feeling about this whole night - Al's stupid magic tricks, his nasty look, the way he was drinking in Jackie's story. She plunked her bottle down on the table, where it made a dull thud.

"Okay, well," she said, "I really need to get going. It was nice to meet you, Al."

"Yeah," said Cass, "I have to go too."

"But ladies," protested Al. "The night's young."

"But we have to get to work tomorrow," said Flossie, "so we really need to go." She stood, forcing Jackie to stand, too.

"May I at least have one last drink with you, milady?" said Al to Jackie, eyeing her with some purpose.

"No thanks," said Jackie. "Like they said, work." Jackie hadn't even finished her second beer, but it was clear she wasn't about to stay with Al alone at the bar. Flossie had a bad moment when she thought Al wouldn't get up to let Cass out of the booth, but after a brief hesitation, he stood.

"I could see you out," he said, and this was the final straw for Flossie. She put both hands on Jackie's right arm and effectively hustled her to the bar's exit.

"Nope!" said Cass behind her. "See ya." And then all three of them were in the street and away.

"That was," said Cass after the door closed behind them, "officially the worst."

"You didn't have to be such bitches about it," retorted Jackie. "He was at least trying."

"Trying _way_ too hard," said Flossie.

"I didn't even get to finish my beer," Jackie groused.

"They're on me next week, okay?" said Flossie. "As long as you don't talk to any skeevy guys," she added, and realized her mistake when Jackie whirled around, furious.

"I can _talk_ to whoever I _want_," she shouted, face going as red as her hair.

And in that moment, Flossie - tired from work, a little buzzed from the beers, and eager for home - decided that she had had enough of Jackie's bullshit for one night. "That doesn't mean," she shouted back, "that _I_ have to talk to _them_, or watch their shitty little magic shows or drink their shitty fucking _beers_!"

Jackie opened her mouth and drew in a breath to shout something, but they were interrupted by a clustered group of frattish looking guys who started hooting "wooo! Catfiiight!" and cackling as they shuffled off.

This had the effect of deflating Flossie's anger - now she just felt foolish. "Fuck this," she said. "I'm going home. Sorry I yelled at you. I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"

"Yeah," said Cass, "it's cool. See you tomorrow." Flossie had no doubt that there'd be some damage control on Cass's part, but that it would more likely than not work, and Jackie would be her friendly self by lunchtime tomorrow at the latest.

_ And the best part_, Flossie thought, once she was safely on the Q train, _is that I won't see shitty-fucking-magician Al, tomorrow or ever_.

Of course, she was wrong.

When Flossie thought about that Thursday - the day after the beers-and-magic-show weirdness of meeting Al - she always pictured an analogy she'd read in some newspaper somewhere. It was about stacking slices of swiss cheese, one on top of the other, as an illustration about making mistakes. Each hole in the slice of cheese is a mistake, the article said, but if you stack the slices one on top of the other, the holes get covered by the rest of the slices in the stack, so the mistakes don't matter. Most of the time. But when the holes align in just the right way, there's a mistake that goes straight through the stack that leads to - well, it leads to a disaster.

It started with the hangover. Flossie had woken the next day headachy, queasy, dry-mouthed, and - inexplicably - angry.

_It was just two beers_, she thought, over and over as she tried to scrub the sick feeling away in her shower. _ Just two beers, and yeah a shot, and I didn't have enough water but still_. Time was, she could share two pitchers of beer among herself and two friends without waking up with so much as a headache the next day. _Maybe I'm getting old_, she thought to herself, as she dabbed extra concealer under her eyes.

The sluggish morning meant it took a bit longer for Flossie to get out the door, and that meant she missed her usual train. By the time she made it to midtown, she was irritated, sweating, and still feeling a little sick. She trudged up the subway steps, trying not to heave, and started down the four blocks that would take her to the nondescript building in which she spent five days every week. By the time she got there, she was running a half hour late.

At this point, she knew the earlier shift of guards would have given up waiting and gone home by now. Technically shifts weren't supposed to leave until all three members of the next shift had arrived, but there was no real supervision in the job, and it was always so quiet, that the guards tended to bend the rules. Flossie, Jackie and Cass sometimes skipped out when the next shift was late, especially when they wanted to go drinking together. Still, Flossie didn't like being late when it meant leaving the room unguarded. She just hoped Jackie and Cass were already there.

She had just arrived at the building when her cell buzzed in her pocket. "Yeah?" she said, balancing the phone on her shoulder as she dug in her bag for her keycard.

"Hey, it's Cass," said the voice on the other end. "Listen, do you see my keycard?"

"Huh?" asked Flossie, still fishing. "Why would I have your keycard?"

"I think I left it yesterday, did you see it in the locker room? Or is it in our room?"

"Cass, I just barely got to work, I'm not even in the building."

"Oh, good!" said Cass. "You can buzz me in. Hold on, I'm like five minutes away."

And of course, that's just when Flossie found her keycard. "Yeah, sure, just hurry up, okay?"

So she waited, leaning against the side of the building. Despite her bad mood, it was a perfect New York morning - sunny, clear and cool. The city was a mass of scaffolding, the remnants of last year's extraterrestrial attack. It was as though all of the buildings had sprouted their own complicated exoskeletons, and were healing themselves. Stark Tower was in her direct line of sight, the single "A" remaining on its facade, gleaming in the morning sun. Not a bad day to be outside, even if she was going to be late.

Cass took more like ten minutes to show up, but Flossie's mood was greatly improved by the few minutes of sunshine. When Cass jogged up the steps, Flossie swiped her card, and they both walked in.

As Flossie turned to their locker room, Cass said "wait, I want to check our room, I'm pretty sure I left it there."

"Can we at least get changed first?" asked Flossie.

"Come on, it'll take, like, two seconds, and then we can change. I'm just, like, freaking out until I get it back, you know?"

"Yeah, I guess. Come on," said Flossie, and carded them into the elevator, punching the button to take them down three floors. Once there, she punched in the number code on the door leading to the antechamber where they generally spent their days. It clicked open, she pushed in the door, and she froze.

Jackie was there - not in uniform, in her street clothes. And behind her was creepy magician Al, holding a semi-automatic pistol to her head.

"Late for work," said Al.

Cass whirled around to the elevator, but since she didn't have a keycard, the call button remained dark, and the elevator didn't come. She jammed it with her finger anyway.

"Tell her to get back in here," said Al, "or I will shoot this bitch."

Flossie's mind was racing in circles - most of those circles involving some extremely foul language at herself for skipping the locker room where her holster - and gun - were both safely locked away. She didn't have so much as a can of mace on her. There wasn't anything to do but say "Cass, come on," and try to think of what to do next.

_Get him out of here somehow _was the only thing she could think of - she just had no idea how to do it without a fucking weapon.

"You bitches," said Al, "owe me."

"What?" snapped Flossie.

"After all that bullshit," said Al, "all those drinks I bought you, and then you just skip out on me? Nuh-uh." He tightened his grip on Jackie's arm at this, and she winced. Jackie could, under normal circumstances, get a man's wrist behind his back in about two seconds flat, but between the SIG in Al's hand and the carefully cultivated muscles in his arm, she had nowhere to go.

So Flossie tried to stall. "That's what this is about? You wanting to get _laid_?"

"_Fuck you_," Al spat, and Flossie couldn't resist.

"You wish," she snapped, ignoring Cass' horrified look. It was a mistake, of course, but damn, did it feel good to say.

"_You_ wish, you fat bitch," Al said, gripping Jackie's arm even tighter. "You're probably all just dykes anyway."

"Just put the gun down, huh?" said Flossie. "There's no reason for that shit." She took a step forward. "I know you're not gonna be unreasonable about this. Just put the gun down."

"You," replied Al, "had better stop moving right now."

Flossie stopped moving. She raised both palms to chest level. "Okay, I've stopped. Okay? Relax. Nobody has to get hurt here. So why don't you tell me what you want?" Her voice sounded steady, and about forty times as confident as she actually felt.

"I want to see it," said Al.

Flossie had no idea what to say, except "seriously?"

"Yeah," said Al. He let go of Jackie's arm, reached into his trouser pocket and brought out two keycards, fanning them with one deft twist of finger and thumb. "I want to see it. The thing. I want to know what it is. So I need your keycard."

And he was, of course, right. To open the large metal door that led to the interior room took all three guards' keycards, and he had two - plus the gun, of course.

"Let me guess," said Flossie, "you took Cass' off her at the bar."

Al gave her a nasty grin, and Flossie heard Cass give a stifled little groan behind her.

"So you looked up the address of the company, got in here with that-" she nodded at the pistol "thing, waited for the other guards to leave, found Jackie here alone before she could get her gun, took her card, got her to bring you here..."

"And waited for you," said Al.

"Well," said Flossie, "okay."

"What?" asked Cass, but Flossie ignored her.

Flossie took her keycard out of her pocket and held it up. "Put the gun down and let Jackie go," she said, "and we'll show you." At training, she'd been told that the guards were only to use the cards in an emergency. They'd never even been into the interior room where whatever-it-is was kept. But this was an emergency if there ever was one.

Slowly, Al raised the muzzle of his gun so that it was no longer pointing at Jackie's head. "I'm not putting it down," he said, but he shoved Jackie then, away from him and toward Flossie. Jackie gave a little yelp, and then dashed to the back of the room by the door. "Come here," said Al.

Flossie took one step forward, then another. "I think this would be better for everyone if you put down the gun."

Al lowered the muzzle at Flossie's face. "I didn't say talk, bitch, I said come _here_."

Flossie sucked in her breath and went, holding the keycard out in front of her, as though it were a shield. Once she got within arms length, she stopped. But Al didn't take the card - he held his two out instead.

"Take them," he said, "and key me in."

_Should have had my weapon, should have had my motherfucking piece_, Flossie seethed to herself, but she said nothing, taking the keys, and holding them each in turn to the scanner by the interior room door.

Once the third keycard registered in the panel, there was a click as the metal door's lock sprung. Flossie pushed the door in, only to find a tiny hallway that led to another metal door. This door had a faded sign attached to it that read "DANGER: CLOSE EXTERIOR DOOR BEFORE OPENING."

"Uh-" Flossie started, but she felt a tap against the back of her head.

"Just open it," Al said, so Flossie did.

_There'll be cameras in there though, or sensors, or alarms or some fucking thing_, she reasoned, _so it'll be okay. It'll be fine_.

But it wasn't. When Flossie pushed the interior door open, the room was completely dark, and she had to feel around for the light switch. The lights came on, and showed no cameras, no equipment for sensors, nothing. Just an empty room, with a little table in the middle, and on the table, an even smaller box.

"Go in in front of me," said Al, so Flossie went, silently cursing the room's emptiness of anything that she could use as a weapon.

"Around the table," Al added. She went around to the back while he stayed at the front, still holding the weapon to her head. The tiny box was between them, the front facing Al, and the back, with its tiny hinges, facing Flossie.

"Open it for me," said Al.

Slowly, Flossie reached down to the box, and eased it open. There was no lock, it swung open, sort of like a ring box from a jeweler's. Al stared at the whatever-it-was inside.

"Whoa," he said.

And that's when Flossie grabbed his gun arm by the wrist. Unfortunately the table was between them, and when she tried getting Al's arm behind his back, she knocked the table with her hip, sending it into Al's gut. Both of them fell to the floor.

Flossie fell badly, twisting her leg underneath her, and before she could recover from the sudden shock of pain, Al got up first, snatching one of the keycards that had scattered when they fell.

"_BITCH_!" he screamed. "Stay _right fucking there_. Do _not _get up!" She watched as he backed out of the room, gun pointing at her, until he whirled and ran for the elevator.

"Get him!" she screamed, and by the sound of it, they tried, but by the time Flossie got up, he'd gotten himself into the elevator, and was gone.

Flossie limped into the anteroom to find Cass in a corner, holding one side of her head, and Jackie running one hand through her hair. "Well _shit_," Jackie said.

"No kidding," said Flossie.

"I'm gonna have a black eye," muttered Cass from the corner.

"Excuse me while I give, like, zero fucks about your eye," snapped Flossie. "We have bigger things to worry about."

"_Fuck_ you," said Cass, just as Jackie said "Huh?"

"He took it," said Flossie.

"What?!" said Jackie. It came out in a sort of high-pitched shriek.

"It's not there anymore. He must have got it when I grabbed his wrist."

"No way," said Jackie, and she strode into the room. Flossie didn't bother to follow, and the "mother_fuck_" that sounded after a minute told her that Jackie had realized she was right.

"Well what do we do?" Cass said, her voice wavering in what sounded like panic.

"Call it in, I guess," said Flossie. "The police will-"

"No," said Jackie. "We're not calling it in."

"Are you out of your goddamn mind?" snapped Flossie.

"No, are you?" Jackie shot back. "We call the police, we lose our jobs. I can't lose another job."

"Our _job_?" asked Flossie. "We guard shit, _that's_ our job. And now there's nothing left to guard."

"Yeah?" said Jackie. "Well, who's gonna know?"

And that stopped Flossie cold. Who _was_ going to know, she wondered.

"You saw what was in there," continued Jackie. "Just the table and the thing, right? There's no camera. There's no alarm. There's no nothing. There's just us, our word against theirs. Nobody needs to know we fucked up."

And that's what stopped Flossie. Not the fact that she needed the job, or the money, not even that it was her friend saying it. But she, once upon a time a cop, couldn't bear to call the police and tell them what she'd done - how she'd failed. She couldn't stand having them look at her, saying _incompetent_, saying _fuck-up_. Saying_ just a girl_.

She walked slowly into the inner room, picked up the table, and placed it back where it had once stood - minus that tiny box.

"Hey," said Jackie from the anteroom. "Did you at least see what it was?"

"No," said Flossie, "I didn't."

"You guys," moaned Cass from her corner, "we are officially the worst security guards of all time."

Flossie white-knuckled her way through that day and the next. But, as it turned out, Jackie was right. No one called them on the missing whatever-it-was. The other guard shifts all showed up marginally on time and took up their positions. No one went into the interior room. No one gave the slightest indication that they knew that whatever they were guarding was now gone. Flossie showed up, donned her uniform and her holster, stood in the anteroom, and guarded a room full of nothing against no one. She didn't say much to Jackie or Cass. She started carrying her weapon home at night, even if it was against work policy - and technically for her, illegal. When she walked along the streets heading for home, she looked for Shitty Magician Motherfucking Thief Al. She never saw him.

By Friday she was so keyed up, she thought she might scream. In the afternoon, Jackie half-heartedly suggested going out for beers. She didn't say "come on my Single Ladies," and she looked relieved when neither Cass nor Flossie accepted the invitation.

Flossie trudged to the subway by herself. She craved the stillness of her apartment, her little cube of peace carved out of New York sky. A glass of red wine, a bowl of popcorn, and the trashiest, most mind-numbing show she could find on her TV were all she wanted out of the night. She felt so jittery that she kept looking over her shoulder, convinced there was someone following her, but she saw no one.

By the time Flossie got home it was full dark, and she was exhausted. She shut and locked her apartment door, flipped on the light, and then froze.

There was a man sitting in the armchair facing the door, a pale man in a dark suit, reading a book.

Flossie whipped her gun out of the holster under her jacket, cocked it in one smooth movement, pointed it straight at the man's head and screamed "_freeze motherfucker_!"

The man did not freeze. He looked up, blinked, closed the book on his lap, and set it onto Flossie's coffee table. It was Flossie's _Anthology of American Poetry _- the detritus of a long-ago abandoned MFA.

_Okay_, thought Flossie, as she tried to sum the man up. He was slight, with a thin, pinched sort of face, and black hair swept back from his forehead. He wasn't just pale, he was ghastly pale, and his dark suit only made him look more cadaverous. The suit was trim and, she noticed, closed in the front, meaning he didn't have a holster underneath the jacket.

The door had been locked when she'd come in, the windows that she could see were all closed and unbroken. And burglars, Flossie knew, did not break into apartments with no weapons just to sit in armchairs and read poetry anthologies. And they most certainly did not just sit calmly when faced with a semi-automatic pointed at their heads. _This_, thought Flossie, _could be very, very bad_.

"What do you want?" she said, not lowering her gun.

The man leaned back into the chair, and propped his elbows on the armrests, tenting his fingers in front of him. When he spoke, he spoke quietly, with a vaguely British accent - and, Flossie noticed, with a rasp, as though he'd just recovered from a bad bout of laryngitis.

"I understand," he said, "that something of yours has gone missing."


	2. Chapter 2

**Part 2: Asgard**

_Wo freier Mut frommt_

_allein frag' ich nach keinem._

_Doch des Fiendes Neid_

_zum Nutz sich fügen,_

_lehrt nur Schlauheit und List,_

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_ -Wotan_

Thor woke without opening his eyes. Everything hurt.

He tested himself, part by part. Toes, ankles, knees. They hurt. Fingers, palms - the right hand _really_ hurt. Stomach, chest - breathing _hurt_. Shoulders could barely be moved, neck twinged. When he tried his face - his mouth, his nose - he couldn't move any part without wincing, and the act of wincing made everything else hurt worse.

"Awake already?" came a hoarse whisper from above him.

Thor opened his eyes (which hurt) to see the blurred form of his brother looking down at him.

Thor parted his mouth as much as he could, trying to move through the pain. "All right," he managed to say, only slurring the words slightly through his swollen lips. "Tell me you told me so."

Loki's mouth twitched into a mirthless smile. "I told you so."

And even though it hurt more than anything Thor had done since waking, he smiled back.

It felt good. It felt almost _normal_. And normal came in tiny slices for Thor these days. They were to be savored, to be rolled around inside his head, saved whole for mulling over later, to be played back moment by moment. To let him pretend, sometimes, that all of it hadn't happened. That everything was normal.

It wasn't normal, of course. Thor didn't have to turn his head to know that the chair Loki was sitting in was nailed to the floor, and that the blanket tastefully draped around him was hiding two criss-crossed sets of chains binding him at the legs, wrists, waist and chest. The chains were probably nailed to the floor as well, and the only reason Loki wasn't gagged in the bargain was that it was true, what he said. He'd told them so.

_And now what? _Thor wondered.

* * *

The day that Thor had brought Loki and the Tesseract back from Midgard had been one of the worst in his life. Not because he hadn't been rather flushed with victory - he had - and not because of the carnage he had left behind, the strange, wrenching sight of all those small people mourning their little lives. It had been the look on their mother's face when she'd laid her eyes on her youngest son - beaten, bound, gagged, and prostrate on the floor below her throne. She'd staggered to her feet, and stood over him with an expression of disbelief, horror, and hurt. She stood there for a long time until Loki had raised his eyes to meet hers.

"Loki," she finally said, "I thought you were dead."

And, for whatever he'd done, at that moment Loki had the decency to lower his eyes to the ground.

"Take him to the Healing Room," said their father, and the guards took him without another word. Thor glanced at the look on his mother's face before he followed.

The Healing Room was immediately in an uproar. Thor stood back as Healers scurried back and forth, all of them managing to look extremely busy while staying as far as possible from Loki, who had been strapped to a bed, and was straining his eyes to try to watch what was going on.

"She never should have brought that _thing_ here," said a voice behind Thor. He turned to see his Aunt Friea, the Head Healer, standing by his elbow.

Freia was Frigga's youngest sister, and was widely considered the most beautiful woman in all of Asgard, tall, with fine-boned features and a mass of golden hair. To the disappointment of many noble Asgardian men, and more than a few women, Freia had never elected to marry, but had instead devoted her life to the art and magic of healing. She had quickly risen in the ranks, and had served Asgard as Head Healer for as long as Thor could remember.

Ever since Thor was a child, he had always known that he could run to his Aunt Freia with any scrape, bruise or cut that he received, either on the practice grounds, or while playing, and that she would drop everything but the most serious of cases to patch him up. She would give him her sweetest smile and pieces of crystallized honey, and would listen to the story of Thor's latest injury with indulgent admiration.

It was only recently that Thor had realized that Aunt Friea had never quite given the same treatment to Loki. She always dropped nearly everything to see to Loki's injuries - particularly when Thor was with him - but she had never been quite so free with her honey or her smiles as she was with Thor. Thor was a little embarrassed to admit to himself that he had never really noticed the difference in treatment before now. He'd accepted it passively, as no more than his due. They couldn't both be Aunt Freia's favorite, after all.

But now, the hard look on Aunt Freia's face as she stared down at the restrained Loki chilled Thor.

"Did you know all this time that he was-" Thor asked.

"A monster?" interrupted Freia. "Of course." She looked up at Thor. "I'm the Head Healer, darling, of course I had to know. I couldn't treat him as an Aesir, could I?"

"I... suppose not," Thor started, though he knew next to nothing about how healing magics affected jotnar differently from Aesir. "But Mother told me that she did not want him to feel different."

"Of course he's different!" said Freia. When Thor frowned at her, she patted his arm, her expression softening. "I love my sister very much," she said, "but she cannot nurse a serpent at her breast and be surprised when it bites her. It is only nature after all."

As an assistant Healer raced by, Freia shot an arm out and caught him, telling him in a much sterner voice than she used with Thor "dose him. And keep him under." The assistant healer nodded, eyes wide, and cautiously approached the bed where Loki lay.

"Perhaps now Frigga will listen to me," Freia continued, as she watched the assistant Healer crush a carefully chosen set of herbs, set them alight, and used them to begin a sedative spell. He passed his hands over Loki, wafting the bowl of smoking herbs over Loki's face. Loki followed the movement, his eyes darting up, his arms straining against his restraints. As the spell took effect, Loki had time to glance once at Thor before his eyelids fluttered, then closed.

"There now," Freia said, taking Thor's arm. "Why don't we see about patching you up?"

* * *

Thor had told them, his friends in Midgard, that only Asgard had the ability to seal Loki into a place where he could do no more damage. This had been done. The cell, specially built within a few days' time while Freia kept Loki under heavy sedation, was built of pure - well, some material, Thor could never keep the names straight - but whatever it was, it repelled magic. Once he'd been placed inside, nothing Loki said within that cell could affect anything outside of it. That made it a bit dicey for the guards who went in to bring him things like food, but there were enough posted outside the cell to ensure that if Loki tried anything, they could overwhelm him in moments. And of course, they kept the gag on him, taking it off only to let him eat.

Thor didn't go to see Loki, either while he remained in the Healing Room or after he had been placed into the cell. He wanted to put what his brother had done behind him, to visit with Sif and Volstagg and Fandral and Hogun and tell them about his time in Midgard, the friends he'd made, the things he'd done. And he had, and they'd laughed at all the right places, gasped at all the right moments, had clapped him on the back in congratulations, expressing envy at the glories of the battle in which they wished they could have taken part. But in the back of Thor's mind, it didn't feel right. There were five when there should have been six.

_even if he was always annoying us hanging around no one invited you tagalong well he's adopted_

Thor's parents, on the other hand, had been grim-faced and silent as Thor told them the particulars of his travels to Midgard. When he had finished, Frigga had stood without a word, and walked from the room. Odin had put his hand on Thor's shoulder, and had said in a quiet, grave voice, "I am very proud of you, as is your mother. She just needs some time." Thor nodded. He felt comforted, but not proud. That night he got himself into a drinking contest with Volstagg, and played to lose. He lost.

Days went by and Thor tried to float on their surface, to allow his thoughts only to skim along the most immediate of matters. It had been easy before all this had happened, it seemed that before his initial, botched coronation day, he'd never had to carry the burden of a serious thought. So now that he was victorious, why should his thoughts be oppressive?

_There's a word for it, some special word about how stupid that is. Loki would know._

He'd half decided to find Loki and ask him what it was before he remembered.

It was at breakfast, several days after that when Frigga finished her meal, pushed her plate aside, and said "I'll see my son today." It was an order, and one of her ladies-in-waiting lept up and rushed out, presumably to warn Loki's guards that she'd be coming. Freia looked critical and leaned in to hiss something to Frigga, but Frigga waved her off. Frigga waited for Odin to finish his breakfast before standing and striding from the room. Odin, in turn, turned his eye to Thor before following his wife in silence. Thor stood and followed, trying to ignore the pit of dread in his stomach - into which his breakfast seemed to have fallen.

The family made their way down into the bowels of the palace, down an interminable set of stairs to a room that, if rumor were true, had been an eating hall in the dark times before Odin had taken the throne of Asgard. Now it was just a cavernous space beneath the palace proper, around which guards, armed and armored, were posted facing its center. In the center of the space was the cell of - well, whatever it was made of-

_Loki would know_

and in the center of the cell was Loki.

The cell material was glass-like, so that Loki was visible from all sides. The contents - besides Loki, of course - consisted of something that could only with optimism be called a bed, a straight-backed chair fixed to the floor, and a chamber pot with no screen. That last, the total lack of anything approaching dignity, struck Thor the hardest. There was no source of water, either, a basin would have to be brought in by a guard. This would likely be difficult for Loki, Thor considered, as he'd always been particular about his grooming.

_what was it Volstagg always used to say making yourself pretty for your lover princess and he'd roar and Loki would just give him that look from the corner of his eye and say yes well not everyone cares to house a menagerie on one's face or something it was probably funnier when he said it_

Loki was sitting in the straight-backed chair, and didn't turn to watch them enter. He sat still, hands in his lap, staring at the opposite wall. His hair hung lank at the sides of his face, his mouth hidden behind the gag.

The guards all stood to attention when Thor and his parents entered the space, with the captain approaching and making a stiff bow to Odin. Frigga ignored the captain, sweeping past him, but Odin and Thor stopped to acknowledge his bow.

"How is he?" Odin asked.

"He has been quiet, Allfather," the guard answered.

_Well, he'd have to be_, thought Thor, but said nothing.

"Has he not said anything when-" Odin started, but stopped when the captain shook his head.

"Take that thing off his face," said Frigga, her voice carrying across the room.

The captain turned to her, then looked back to glance at Odin.

"Do as your queen commands," Odin said, and the guard gave another short bow. He turned, and motioned to a set of guards, who came forward bearing a largish grey cube, about two feet on each side. They set the thing down at the base of one side of the cell and somehow unfolded it, so that it lay flat on the floor. When they finished, a flickering panel appeared on the glass wall of the cell, through which the two guards walked, with another set standing at the panel, blocking the way out.

The two guards first bound Loki's hands behind him, and then his ankles to the legs of the chair. Thor could tell, watching, that Frigga did not like this one bit, but she said nothing as she watched them perform their protocol. Loki, for his part, did not resist. He barely seemed to notice that the guards were there.

Only when Loki was fully constrained did the guards stand - one before him, and one behind, the first keeping watch while the second removed the gag. When it was off, both stepped back, not turning their backs to Loki until they were through the panel in the cell. They folded the grey cube back into its original shape, and the panel in the wall vanished.

Frigga waited until the guards had gone back to their places and stood, silent and unmoving, before she spoke.

"Loki," she said, "how are you?"

Loki looked at their mother, and said nothing.

Frigga sucked her breath in, then let it out. "Are you hurt?"

Loki said nothing.

"I am sorry not to have come before today," Frigga said. "I think you can appreciate how difficult this has been."

Loki said nothing.

Frigga took a step forward, and then another, moving forward until she was only a few inches from the wall of the cell. She raised her hand to the glass-like substance, barely tapping her fingernails against it. "Loki," she said. "I missed you so much."

Loki said nothing, his face blank, his gaze flat. He might as well have been staring at the wall.

Figga let out a breath from between her teeth and turned away. She'd only taken a step or two when the captain gave the signal to the guards to enter the cell again, taking the gag. Frigga turned to watch, and as they were folding the grey cube back to form the portal, she snapped at them. "Is that strictly necessary?"

The guards stopped what they were doing, looking first to Frigga, then to the captain. "Your majesty?" the captain said.

"If this," Frigga said, waving her arm to the nearest cell wall, "does what it's supposed to, there is no need for him to - to wear that while he's inside, is there?"

"Well," said the captain, "I suppose it is not strictly necessary, your majesty, but-"

"Then keep it off," she snapped, and swept up the stairs. The guards, still kneeling by the gray box, looked up at the captain, who nodded to them. They continued the process of unfolding the box, entering the cell, and releasing the restraints on Loki's arms and legs. He still did not acknowledge them, only placing his hands back in his lap when they were untied, and continuing to stare at the wall in front of him.

"If he makes a single sound without us here-" began Odin. He nodded toward the soldier holding the gag rather than finishing the sentence. The captain nodded back, and bowed as Odin and Thor followed Frigga up the stairs.

They went back the next day, Thor half dreading and half curious to see if Loki would be gagged when they returned. He wasn't.

The family visited Loki every day for over a week. Frigga stood and spoke to her son, at first trying to convince him to speak to her, then giving up and just talking about anything that came into her head, the mundane details of day to day life in Asgard, whatever she thought might vaguely interest Loki, but wouldn't be upsetting. Loki faced them, met their eyes, sat or stood still and gave every appearance of listening, but never said a word. Thor and Odin let Frigga speak, but never attempted to engage Loki themselves. The longer this went on, the more disconcerted Thor got.

_always used to wonder what I would have to do to shut him up but_

Frigga remained outwardly calm, but began to show a bit more strain, day to day. Finally, after another futile visit, Thor stopped her on their way back into their living quarters.

"Mother," he said, "do you think this is really worthwhile? If Loki doesn't speak again, perchance it would not be such a bad thing. You did not see what he did there. The people he killed."

Frigga drew herself up straight. "No," she said, "I did not. But I am trying to understand how my son could do the things you say he did, and how he could force his brother to be the one to stop him." She turned away then, casting her eyes to the ground. "Sometimes I ask myself," she finally said, "which one of you I failed the most."

Thor let her push past him on her way back up into the occupied part of the palace, but he didn't follow. He stood, and thought for a very long time before turning and going back the way he had come.

Loki was still sitting in the chair in which they'd left him, hands folded in his lap, eyes fixed to the wall. Thor walked to the place where his mother had stood, and waited until Loki focused on him before speaking.

"I think that you should consider speaking to Mother," he said.

Loki tilted his head a hair's breadth to one side, and raised one of his eyebrows. It was the most demonstrative thing he'd done since his imprisonment, and for Thor, who'd spent a lifetime deciphering Loki's moods, the meaning couldn't have been more clear if he had said it out loud. _You put that thing on my face, and now you're asking me to talk?_

"She's breaking her heart over you," said Thor.

Loki shrugged. _Not my problem._

"It damn well is your problem,"' Thor hissed, feeling the welling of anger in him, but not wanting the guards to hear him clearly. "You started all of this, I still cannot imagine why. You killed so many people, caused so much havoc - it - it isn't _you_."

The glare Loki gave him at this was not as decipherable as his earlier gestures, but he plainly thought that Thor was being an idiot. At that moment, Thor half agreed with him. Still, he continued.

"This is childish," he said. "You will have to answer for your crimes sooner or later, and you cannot simply refuse to speak."

Loki glanced to the left, then the right, then back up at Thor, eyebrows raised.

"Yes, I know, no one is here now," admitted Thor, "but-" He stopped himself, and sighed. "All right. I will not press you further. But know that Mother still loves you. No matter what you've done, and even if you don't - well." He couldn't bring himself to repeat what Loki had implied in Midgard, when he'd referred to their parents as something he'd already rejected. Fortunately, it seemed that Loki was about as adept at understanding what Thor left unsaid as Thor was with Loki. His reaction, however, was simply to sneer.

"Fine," said Thor, now feeling a little sick. He took a step away from the cell, then stopped and looked back at Loki, in the middle of that bare space. "Is there anything I can get you?" he asked. "Anything you'd like?"

This, oddly, prompted a response from Loki that was not sarcastic. Loki actually seemed to consider the question, casting his eyes down for a long moment. Finally, he looked back up at Thor and brought his hands up in front of him. He held them, palms closed together, then opened them so that his palms faced the ceiling.

"You want a book? Is - is that all right? Can he have a book?" The last question was directed at the captain of guard, who gave his stiff little bow.

"It is for you to say, my prince," he said.

"Well," Thor said, turning back to Loki, "which book?"

Loki clicked his tongue and rolled his eyes in exasperation.

"All _right_," said Thor, and he was annoyed enough to give a parting shot. "Just stay where you are, and I'll be back."

Loki glared at Thor, but there was, this time, a touch of humor in it.

Thor made his way into the upper part of the palace. By the time he made it to the vast and rather ancient library that dominated a little-used section of an outer wing, his thoughts were in a snarl. How long would they leave Loki in that cell, how long until his father decided just what they would do with him? Odin couldn't just let Loki rot down there forever - could he? But what would they do with Loki, if not?

No answers came to mind, so Thor tried to distract himself by finding a suitable book. He avoided the books on magic - that would certainly be a recipe for trouble, even with the restraints currently in place. He finally settled on an extremely old, extremely thick volume - the first in a series of handwritten histories of the Nine Realms. One look inside the pages revealed cramped and closely written text in an archaic form of the Alltongue, so lofty in tone that Thor could hardly understand it. He closed the book and tucked it under his arm. _Perfect. _It should keep Loki occupied for a while, at least.

The captain of the guard examined the book briefly, and having no issue with the contents, allowed it to be carried into the cell by his men. Loki accepted it in silence, and waited for the guards to exit before opening it and riffling through its pages.

"Is that one all right?" asked Thor.

Loki glanced up and smiled. It was one of his maybe-you're-not-such-an-idiot-after-all smiles, and Thor could not remember the last time he had seen it. It felt good to see. It felt almost normal.

"Well. Good," he said. "I'll come back tomorrow."

Loki nodded, and bent over his book.

The family began to take their visits in shifts - Frigga and Odin in the mornings, Thor in the afternoons. There was never a conscious agreement on their part to do so, but Thor felt it was the right thing. He did not like the idea of visiting all at once, allowing Loki to continue to stonewall Frigga while, if not speaking to, at least communicating with Thor. It seemed cruel. Even so, he had told Odin and Frigga about giving Loki a book that night at dinner. Frigga had smiled, and kissed him, and called him a good brother. Odin had looked grave, and had said nothing.

Odin was, generally, saying very little these days. He never attempted to engage Loki in conversation, and kept uncharacteristically quiet even when engaging in the day-to-day tasks that encompassed his rule over Asgard. He was weary, Thor knew, from expending the power necessary to send his son to Midgard. Thor began to think that Odin would have to sleep soon, and dreaded the day when that sleep would come, when Odin would call upon Thor to take the throne again. So he did not fault Odin for trying to conserve what energy he had left. But as Odin's silence on the subject of Loki began to seem as pronounced as Loki's silence on the subject of - well, everything - Thor decided that he would have to broach the topic himself.

He managed to shake Volstagg (who had been agitating for another drinking contest) off after dinner one night and instead followed his father back to his chambers, to which Odin had taken to retiring almost immediately after eating. Odin did not seem to notice his son following him until they had both reached the entrance, at which Thor coughed softly. Odin turned, and gave his son a smile. Thor tried to smile back; the effort felt ghastly to his face.

"I would speak with you, father," he said.

Odin nodded, and gestured for Thor to enter the room before him. They sat together before the hearth fire in silence as Thor tried to think of how best to begin. But it was Odin who spoke first.

"To answer your question," he said, "I have not decided what to do with your brother."

"Have you not consulted with the Thing?" asked Thor, speaking of the council of high-ranking officers and nobles that his father assembled in times of need.

"Only in the most informal sense," Odin replied, "and their opinions are so divisive that I have not dared broach the whole assembly for discussion." He sighed heavily. "There are those who - unaware of Loki's parentage - wish me to strip him of his rank and exile him to Jotenheim."

Thor did not have to be told that this was a disastrous idea. Loki had already proven that he was capable of mustering an army from cosmic nothingness - to place a vengeance-minded Loki among his own disenfranchised people would surely lead to ruin.

"And then," Odin continued, "there are those who insist that Loki's deeds were for the good of Asgard, and that he should have been returned a hero rather than a prisoner."

"Who says this?" snapped Thor, rising to his feet. "Must I convince them otherwise with the force of Mjölnir?"

Odin placed a hand on Thor's arm. "Peace, I pray you, my son. I wish to prevent a rift among our people, not to foster a new one."

Thor sat down again, still seething but willing himself calm.

"There is, finally, a sizable number who wish Loki's execution," said Odin.

Thor forgot that he was trying to be calm. "You cannot allow this!" he cried, without thinking.

"No, I cannot," said Odin, "but perhaps not for the reason you imagine."

"What do you mean?" Thor asked.

Odin sighed again, and was silent for a long moment before speaking. "A man's power comes from keeping his word," he said, "and the law is the word of a king. The power that we use to rule Asgard is entwined with the law, and to maintain that power, the law we must keep. We may not lightly establish new precedent, for we will ever be bound to maintain it so long as we wish to rule our realm."

"I do not understand you, father," said Thor, but he did feel an odd sense of dread at Odin's words.

"Simply this - if I put Loki to death for his crimes now, I will be bound to treat other transgressors in the same fashion, as will you, when you inherit the throne." Odin stared into the fire, then said "I have ever been a warrior, my son. I will not become an executioner. Do you understand?"

"I do understand that," said Thor. He too could not imagine killing someone in cold blood, rather than honorably, in the heat of battle. "But then what is to be done? You cannot exile him, and you cannot just leave him down there."

"Then what would you have me do?" asked Odin. "Speak. I will listen."

But Thor did not know, and did not speak.

It was a long time before Odin spoke again, but when he did, his voice was comforting. "I do not judge you for your silence," he said. "This is a matter for careful consideration and thought, not for rash judgment. I was rash when I exiled you to Midgard, and I do not wish to repeat that mistake. I made many a rash decision as a young king, and there are those that I have lived to regret. I believe that bringing your brother to Asgard was rash. But," he paused, the firelight flickering on his face, making him look sad. Making him look old. "I am still not convinced it was the wrong decision."

"Nor am I, father," said Thor.

Odin clasped him on the shoulder. "We have time," he said, "and I am strengthened by having you with me. But I do not wish that this burden fall over-heavy on your shoulders. The masters of magic tell me that they continue to study the Tesseract to determine the effects of its time on Midgard. But perhaps when they are finished, you might use it to see your young lady."

"I should like that," Thor admitted. He still regretted not having the opportunity to see Jane on his last venture to Midgard, although it was better that she had been sent from her country when Loki had attacked it. Loki had threatened to pay her a "visit" during their last fight in Asgard, and although Thor was half convinced that Loki had been bluffing, trying to goad Thor into an attack, "half convinced" was not enough when it came to Jane. Still, she had been working so hard to find a way to reach him since his return to Asgard, it seemed to him shameful to leave without contacting her.

He'd tried writing a letter in the brief respite he'd had before departing Midgard - after eating roasted sliced meats upon flat breads, and then returning to the usable spaces in Stark Tower while S.H.I.E.L.D. agents looked after Loki. He'd sat at an empty desk with a pen and a piece of paper, and had just stared at it. He knew all the words he wanted to say to Jane, he just didn't know which order they went in.

_Loki would know_

The only other time Thor had tried to write a love letter was ages ago, when he'd not been much more than a boy, and had a nausea-inducing crush on a yellow-haired general's daughter. He hadn't been able to think of what to write then, either, so despite the danger of being mercilessly mocked, he'd swallowed his pride and asked Loki what he ought to write.

Loki had been surprisingly sympathetic, and had come up with some really brilliant ideas - comparing the girl to the sight of the first flower of spring was chief among them - and had spent an evening helping Thor get the words in the right order. Thor had been so proud of the letter that he had forgotten his terror-induced nausea, and had handed the girl the letter himself the next day. He had watched eagerly as she read the letter - and then in horror as she burst into tears.

Loki had, of course, replaced Thor's letter with one comparing the girl - unfavorably - to their father's war horse. It was as brilliant as the love letter he'd helped Thor write the night before, and almost breathtaking in its cruelty. The black eye Thor had given Loki had lasted two weeks, though by Loki's own admission, he had barely felt the blow, as he'd been too focused on trying not to piss himself, he was laughing so hard.

But Loki had saved the original letter, and after some persuasion on Thor's part, had returned it. Thor had apologized to the girl, explained the prank, given her the letter, and received his first kiss.

All of this came back to Thor as he had stared at the blank sheet of paper, and instead of focusing on what he should write, he could only think _what happened? What happened? What happened?_ He had crumpled the paper, even though he had not written a word on it, and thrown it into a wastepaper basket.

He had finally asked Tony for advice, after seeing Tony's woman - Pepper - run into Stark Tower and throw herself around Tony's neck, kissing him as Tony tried to assure her that he was all right. Tony seemed to be the only one of Thor's new friends who had a successful relationship, but when Thor had taken Tony aside to speak with him, Tony had first hemmed, then hawed, and finally admitted that Pepper might be a bigger help.

Pepper had kindly assisted Thor in writing a short note explaining how much he missed Jane, how glad he was that she was safe, how sorrowful he was not to have been able to see her, how hopeful he was that they would meet again soon. Pepper had even proposed accompanying the note with flowers, and Thor had agreed (though it took some convincing on Pepper's part that flowers were a more appropriate gift in this situation than a haunch of meat, which had been Thor's first choice).

It was lovely of Pepper to have taken that time to help him, considering how frantic she was about getting her business back together after the wreck Loki had made of its New York headquarters, and the note was very nice, but - Thor couldn't help thinking - it wasn't _brilliant_. Not first-flower-of-spring brilliant. And then, in Stark Tower, and now, in his father's sitting room, he was annoyed with himself. Surely he could spare Jane a thought without brooding over his brother instead. Maybe it would help to see her, to get back that sense he had when he'd been with her last - that perhaps with someone like her he could be happy. He could be at peace.

"I should like that very much," he concluded, and Odin nodded.

"Then we shall see to it that it is done," Odin said.

* * *

Time passed, and Thor passed the time.

He did the things he loved with the people he loved doing them with - wrestling with Volstagg, target practice with Fandral, sword training with Hogun, riding with Sif. He visited Heimdall near the site of the broken - and currently under repair - bifrost to ask about his Midgardian friends, but most of all about Jane. She was back from Norway and living in New York - Heimdall saw her often with Pepper, and with Darcy. Thor enjoyed hearing Heimdall's descriptions of Jane's activities, but every time he thought about asking the masters of magic about the Tesseract, something stopped him. At first, he told himself that he did not want to disturb their studies, but as days, then weeks, then months went by, he found it more difficult to justify his inertia. All he could think was that he could not go - not just yet. His family needed him.

And so, Thor stayed in Asgard with his family. He tried being kind for his mother and strong for his father. He visited Loki every day.

Loki still refused to speak. Instead, he was tearing through the books in the library at an almost alarming rate. He seemed practically to live on them - he barely ate enough to stay alive, from Thor's perspective (although Thor was the first to admit that the necessities of evacuation within a clear glass cell made eating an unappealing prospect) - but he devoured books almost as fast as Thor could bring them to him.

Thor began to get used to what his life had become, he grew accustomed to his father's weariness, his mother's hurt, his brother's silence. It was not ideal, but it became routine, and routine has a way of eclipsing ideal if it goes on for long enough.

When it all began to go wrong, Thor barely noticed at first. The outlands of Asgard, populated with farmers, herders, hunters, and folk who valued their relative freedom under Odin's benevolent rule, often took care of their affairs in their own way. But one day, the messengers that arrived regularly from the outlands to deliver news about the prosperity of the people to the palace did not arrive on schedule. No message came the next day, or the next, and Thor began to suspect that something was wrong.

"It's probably nothing," said Sif, when he tried to speak with his four friends about his sense of unease. "If there really was something important going on, there would have been a message by now. And we can always ride out to the country to see it for ourselves if that would make you feel better. It might be a nice change of pace," she added, giving him a meaningful look.

"I agree," said Fandral. "We are speaking of the outlands in summer, and the country is delightful at this time of year. There are harvest festivals, feasts, beautiful women-"

"And strapping men," added Volstagg. Volstagg favored men, and the larger and hairier they were, the more Volstagg favored them.

"I think I agree with Sif," said Hogun. "A ride to the country would be a fine diversion."

The three of them chatted on about the proposed trip, completely ignoring the disquiet that had prompted the conversation in the first place.

Thor then went to Heimdall to ask him whether he had seen anything untoward in the outlands. Heimdall pondered the question as he stared into the distance, but finally answered "no, my prince - I see nothing unusual at this time." This placated Thor for a time, but did not quiet his sense of unease.

So instead, Thor talked to Loki, admitting his concern as Loki sat in silence, listening. It was a nice change of pace to talk things out with someone who couldn't ignore him or brush him off, and Thor felt better having unburdened himself.

Loki looked thoughtful after Thor had finished speaking, then looked up, eyebrows raised and making a brief gesture with one hand.

"Yes, I am still considering riding out to the country," Thor said. "It is part of my duties as prince, after all."

Loki rolled his eyes at this, and Thor had to smile.

"You ought to be going with us," said Thor. "It would be like old times."

The moment the words were out of Thor's mouth, he regretted them, but Loki did not look annoyed. He just looked away.

"Loki," Thor said, "perhaps someday-"

Now Loki did look annoyed. He jerked his head to frown at Thor, picked up his latest book - the third in another voluminous series of Asgardian history - held up four fingers, and then tapped them on the cover of the book. Evidently he was ready for book four, and he was ready for it now.

Thor sighed. Their comforting discussion was obviously over. He left without a word to fetch the book.

Thor and his friends took their time preparing for their ride into the country. There was no hurry, and there always seemed to be something else that had to be done before they could set out. It was on the day that Thor was nearly positive that they might leave on the day after the day after tomorrow, or possibly the next day, that the messenger finally came.

She came slumped and bleeding over the neck of her horse, which was frothing with sweat and hardly able to take another step. The soldiers guarding the palace's main gate had to haul her bodily out of the saddle, and she had only the strength to say a single word before sinking into a faint. But the word was "_jotnar_."

The entire palace was in an uproar almost immediately. The messenger was carried to the Healing Room, and every effort was put in to revive her as soon as possible. In the meantime, the army of Asgard was mobilized, and the clang and clamor of soldiers preparing for battle rang through the palace grounds.

When the news reached Thor, he felt alternately vindicated and furious - furious with his friends and family for not recognizing the signs of invasion sooner, and with himself for not heeding the warning his own mind had given him. He went to the Healing Room himself and waited as the Healers struggled with the messenger's wounds, asking them to please let him see her as soon as she was awake. He paced, he bit his nails, he pounded one fist into the other until finally Freia put her hand on his arm, startling him, and said that the messenger was awake.

The messanger was bled nearly white, but still struggled to sit up and give Thor a bow when he entered her room. "Please, stay back," he said, rushing to her side to ease her back into bed.

"My prince-" she gasped, "please forgive me-"

"Peace, please," said Thor. "I beg you, save your strength - only tell me what happened to you. Once that is done, you can rest as long as you like. You are safe now."

The woman smiled, but Thor could tell that she did not quite believe him.

"They appeared so suddenly," she said, "a whole army of them. They targeted the horses first - we could not send word. They imprisoned all of us. I was the one chosen to try to escape with a horse - I barely made it out of the village alive. They are impossibly strong-"

"Who is?" asked Thor. "The frost giants?" This would, at least, explain why Heimdall had not been able to see them - frost giants had a way of infiltrating Asgard without being seen, thanks to Loki's machinations.

"What?" asked the woman, as if in shock. Then she realized again to whom she was speaking. "Prince, forgive me-"

"Do not trouble yourself," said Thor. "Simply tell me - was it the frost giants?"

"No," said the woman. "No - they were rock giants."

It was Thor's turn to be shocked. "_Rock_ giants?" he asked. He had never encountered a rock giant - they lived in Jotunheim, he knew, but they had never had quarrel with Asgard. In fact, he was vaguely aware that rock giants were mortal enemies with frost giants, meaning they had allied with Asgard in the wars against the frost giants long ago.

"Why?" asked Thor. "How could they come here from Jotunheim? Why would they attack Asgard without provocation?"

"I do not know, my prince," said the messenger. "They kept us separated from them once they had taken us prisoner. All I can say is they are led by two brothers, and that they are bent on reaching the palace."

_Brothers_, thought Thor, and felt a twinge of - something - in his stomach. But he kept his face calm and patted the messenger on the hand. "I thank you for your courage and your strength," he said. "You will be honored for your bravery. For now, please rest. You are safe."

"Until they come," the woman murmured.

Thor went straight to his father, telling him what the messenger had said. He then got to one knee, bowing. "Father," he said, "I beg you, allow me to lead the army against this threat."

Odin held one hand out and helped his son stand. "I confess I had hoped you would ask this of me," he said. "Go, with my blessing, and defend our people."

Thor was so pleased that it was several minutes before he began to wonder at how easily his father had agreed to allow Thor to lead the army. Thor had never known a time when Odin had not been at the head of any battle, astride his eight-legged warhorse and wielding his great staff.

_He is weary_, Thor reasoned, _he is allowing me to take a firmer hand. It is what he wanted when he named me as king back then - I am only now able to fulfil this task_. But no matter what he told himself, as he watched the final preparations for the march, there was still a strange niggling in the back of his head that something about this was not quite right.

"Thor," said a voice behind him, and Thor turned to see Sif, dressed and girded for battle. Sif smiled, betraying her eagerness to get out into the field. "We are prepared. Shall we depart?"

"Yes," Thor replied. He had on a light covering of armor; all that needed to be done was to have himself strapped into his large pieces before leading the march out of the palace grounds. Sif, Volstagg, Fandral and Hogun would ride with him, as they always had.

_but now only five there should have been six_

"Ah - no," said Thor. "I require a moment, Sif - would you see to it that all are prepared for when I arrive?"

Sif frowned, but only said "of course," and left him.

Thor cast another look at the assembled warriors lined up on the palace grounds, then turned, and made his way down into the subterranean hall.

Loki was sitting in his chair with his book, and he looked up as Thor entered. He gave Thor a quizzical look upon seeing him armored.

"I wanted to see you before I departed, said Thor.

Loki raised his eyebrows.

"It is nothing - a regiment of rock giants, so it would seem. We will make short work of them."

Loki looked even more confused upon hearing the identity of Thor's opponents.

"I don't know what they want," Thor said, responding to Loki's unasked question. "But it does not matter. They shall not be permitted to harm any more of our people."

But even as Thor said this, Loki acted almost as though he wasn't listening. He was staring at the floor, moving his mouth as though he were trying to say something, but as usual, he didn't make a sound.

This began to irritate Thor. If Loki wanted to say something, why couldn't he just speak, rather than force Thor to decipher his cryptic expressions? Thor felt the anger in him, a hot, clean slicing, and he let it exit his mouth.

"They're brothers, you know. The giants leading the regiment. It should be us going out to face them, not-"

Loki jerked his head up, then stood, taking a step toward the glass wall separating him from his brother. He ran a hand through his increasingly filthy-looking hair, turned, took a step away, then turned back again.

Thor was taken aback. Loki had seemed to deliberately present a calm exterior for the months in which he had been confined. Now he seemed positively twitchy - because of Thor's remark about the giant brothers? Thor steeled himself - whatever agitation Loki was feeling, he certainly deserved it.

"Do not fret," he said, "a blow from Mjölnir shall certainly send them fleeing back to Jotenheim." He turned then - it was foolish to dawdle here. He should not have come in the first place.

The slam that came from behind him was so unexpected that Thor nearly jumped out of his skin. He whirled around to see Loki right up against the glass-like wall of his cage. Loki slammed his palm against the barrier again, and then again.

The captain of the guard gave a signal, and two of the guards rushed forth to fetch the gray cube - to enter the cell and restrain Loki, Thor assumed. Well, he decided, let them.

Loki turned his head to look at the guards, then back to Thor, apparently realizing that his brother did not intend to stop them. He pressed his lips together, then opened his mouth and then made what sounded to Thor like a croak.

"Stop!" shouted Thor to the guards, and took a step back toward his brother. "What did you say?"

Loki looked down, grimacing, clearing his throat. When he finally spoke, it was barely above a whisper, and further muffled by the wall between them. Still, Thor heard.

"That won't work."


	3. Chapter 3

"I do not understand," said Thor, who felt as though he had just been blown into the sky by a strong gust of wind.

"You rarely do," croaked Loki. But he apparently thought better of being snide after a moment, because he continued without further prompting. "Your hammer. It will not work against those jotnar."

"For months you did not speak," replied Thor, "and now what falls from your tongue? Is it nonsense or a lie?"

Loki gave an exasperated sigh. "I am trying," he said, "to help."

"I have seen how you help," said Thor, "and I do not care for it. Tell me what you mean, or keep your silence."

Loki stood still, his hand pressed on the glass wall of his cell. Loki's palm left an oily smear on the wall from running his hand through his hair, and the sight was strangely sickening to Thor. Finally Loki asked, "Is your father leading the charge? Or did he ask you to do it?"

"What does it matter?" asked Thor. Loki did not answer. Finally Thor replied "I asked him to lead the army, and he agreed." That same sense of something being off about his father's ready acquiescence to his request welled up in him again, but he pushed it back down. It was easy to do with enough pride.

Loki seemed to find this amusing; he smirked then, saying "and when have you ever known the great Odin to shirk his duties in battle?"

"Father is weary," snapped Thor, "and for good reason, as I need not explain to you."

"Oh, yes, I'm sure it has been very difficult watching you take over his responsibilities," said Loki. "But have you really thought about that, brother? Exactly what sort of promises will you have to keep when you are king?"

"I do not see what this has to do with-" started Thor, but Loki interrupted him.

"Ask Father why he will not fight," said Loki, "and you will have your answer."

Thor lost what little patience he had remaining. He slammed his fists against the glass wall of Loki's cell, causing Loki to start back in surprise. "Your tongue has ever been a plow that sows discord," Thor said, "and I will not allow it to do so ever again. Stay here then, and stay silent." He turned away, pausing only to tell the captain of the guard "speak to no one of this," and then walked out of the room and up the stairs without looking back. The last thing he needed was for his mother to hear that Loki had started to speak again. He would tell her when he got back, he reasoned. They would decide what to do together. But for now, he had more pressing matters to attend to.

When Thor arrived in the courtyard, Sif, Volstagg, Fandral and Hogun were waiting for him. None of them said anything when they saw the expression on his face. He allowed himself to be strapped into the remainder of his armor, then hefted Mjölnir, weighing it in his hand.

_that won't work_

Thor snorted. Loki was in his little glass box - what did he know about what went on outside his cell, much less outside the palace walls? Thor had his hammer. Loki had only words, and words meant less than nothing out here.

As he rode out into the countryside at the head of his regiment, Thor felt his mood lift. Whatever danger there might be ahead, a ride in the warm summer sun with his friends beside him was a beautiful way to spend a morning. And he looked forward to confronting the rock giant brothers - he hadn't had a good fight since

_don't think about that that's over_

Well. Anyway. He looked forward to testing his hammer against these giants, whoever they were. The sun seemed to evaporate the strange sense of doubt that Loki had planted within him - it seemed to open Thor up, to brighten his insides, to fill him with that brave sense of purpose he he had always carried with him - _before_.

It was over three hours before they saw the jotnar. They were a wavering gray line in the distance at first, but resolved themselves as the two armies moved inexorably together. The first thing Thor noticed was that the giants were on foot - good, that gave his mounted regiment an advantage. The second thing that he noticed was that these giants were huge. They came into view too quickly to be Asgardian-sized, or even frost giant sized. This caused Thor some concern, but not over-much. _Let the giants be giant; it matters not_, he thought, and rode on.

When the two leaders of the jotun horde came into clear view, they were so alike that Thor did not think he could tell them apart. They were shaggy and shambling, with long dark beards and longer hair tied away from their faces. The giants' armor was heavy, plain and unadorned, but expertly crafted and fitted, so suited to its purpose that Thor began to feel slightly foppish in his royally ornamented array and red cape. He swallowed that feeling down as he rode on to meet them.

When the two lines came close, Thor was almost ready to give the signal to charge when he saw one of the giants hold up a hand to the regiment behind them. The rattle and thump of the jotnar advance ceased, and only the two leaders continued on.

"What is this?" asked Sif, who was to Thor's immediate right.

"Perhaps they would treat with us," replied Thor.

"Jotnar do not treat," scoffed Fandral. "They only know destruction." Almost immediately after saying so, Fandral glanced at Thor, realizing that he had made a mistake. Thor chose to ignore Fandral, however. After all, was he not only repeating what they had all learned as children - that jotnar were brutes - greedy, barbarous and cruel, incapable of the intellectual and moral heights reached by Asgardians? Thor remembered one story - Jón the Jotun-Slayer he thought it was called - that he and Loki had used to beg their mother to tell them at bedtime every night when they were small. She had always said yes, and they had listened, rapt, as she described the adventures of the noble Asgardian Jón, who had outsmarted and slain hoards of dim-witted jotnar in increasingly clever ways.

_And what would Loki say about Jón now? _Thor wondered, and the answer came to him quickly: _only words_.

"I would speak with them," Thor said, "and determine their purpose. Sif?"

Sif gave a short nod, and rode beside him toward the advancing jotun brothers. The two groups of two met at a respectful distance between their respective armies, and halted as soon as they were within speaking range. Up close, the jotnar were massive - on horseback, Thor barely came up to their mid-thighs. Thor stood in his saddle and shouted to ensure that he was properly heard.

"Jotnar," he said, "you have trespassed into our realm and imprisoned my people unjustly. I shall give you a single chance to explain your purpose before I send you back to Jotuneim. Speak."

The two jotnar looked at one another. Then the one on the left spoke. "Where is the Allfather?"

The giant's voice was deep and seemed to vibrate through Thor, as though he was hearing it with his entire body. His own voice sounded tinny in comparison. Yet he had faced much more intimidating foes in the past - many times. He sucked in a lungful of air, raising his voice to a bellow.

"I am Thor, Odinson, and I speak for the Allfather," he began, but before he could finish his sentence, the jotun on the left interrupted.

"Then you will give what is owed to us," he said.

Thor was taken aback, but only for a moment. "Asgard owes nothing to the jotnar."

The giant on the right spoke then, to his brother. "The boy knows nothing. We must speak to Odin himself."

Rage swept through Thor then, and he hefted Mjölnir, feeling its weight steady him. He could not lose his temper - that would be the act of the foolish boy he had once been. "You may speak to me, or not at all," he said.

The giant on the left started to laugh, a low rumble that started in his chest and rolled out from his throat. It seemed to add kindling to the flickers of rage within Thor, and his fist clenched around his hammer. "I said speak!" he roared.

The giant on the left spoke. "Our bargain was with the Allfather. If he is too craven to keep his word-"

"I will not listen to your jibes," said Thor, his fist clenching even tighter.

"-and must needs send his puny son to fight his battles-" continued the giant on the left.

Thor lost his temper. Still standing in his stirrups, he spurred his horse into a trot, then a canter. "Thor!" shouted Sif, but it was too late to stop him. Thor swung his hammer around and around his hand and then, once he was within distance, he hurled it straight into the face of the mocking giant on the left.

Mjölnir arced through the air, spinning toward the giant, who barely managed to raise his hand against the oncoming missile before it struck home. And strike it did - and then bounced off of the giant's meaty forearm, clattering harmlessly to the ground.

Thor reigned in his horse and stared at his fallen hammer. It had done no more damage to the giant than a child's pebble would have done, thrown at a man in full plate armor. He looked up at the giant, but his vision was blocked by the sight of a huge, hairy fist descending from above, and aimed straight at his face.

* * *

Thor woke without opening his eyes. Everything hurt.

"Awake already?" came a hoarse whisper from above him.

Thor opened his eyes (which hurt) to see the blurred form of his brother looking down at him.

"All right," Thor said, "Tell me you told me so."

Loki's mouth twitched into a mirthless smile. "I told you so."

_And now what? _Thor wondered.

It was only then that Thor began to become aware of his surroundings. He recognized the white walls of the Healing Room, but if he were there, how could Loki have come to visit him, chained as he was?

"Loki," Thor began, "how-"

"I asked that your mother order him to be brought up," said Sif, who came striding into the room with a Healer close at her heels. "When the Jotun knocked you from your horse-"

"They knocked him off his horse?" asked Loki with a delighted smile.

Sif ignored Loki. "They said that they would not fight our army until you sent word to the Allfather - that they were here to collect what is owed to them. They-" she stopped, and cleared her throat, looking at the floor. "They have encamped around Mjölnir where it fell. To ensure your return."

Thor felt a sinking sensation in his stomach. In all the years that he had wielded his mighty hammer, it had only been taken from him once, by his own father. He felt as though he were missing an arm, rather than simply a weapon. Although it hurt, he stuck his right arm out, closed his eyes, and felt for the hammer with his mind, willing it to return. When he had done so before, he had always felt that connecting tug as Mjölnir responded to his will. Now he felt - nothing.

Loki clicked his tongue. "Ooh," he said. "Now that is unfortunate. But I did warn you."

It was Thor's turn to ignore Loki. "They have not attacked our people?" he asked Sif.

"No - it seems the jotnar are keeping their word," Sif replied. "Both armies have settled on the field, but there has been no fighting. Volstagg, Hogun and Fandral are in command. I took a small troop to carry you back to the palace. You were speaking in your sleep, you kept saying 'Loki knows why.'" She gave Loki an accusatory look. "I had him brought here so he could tell us what mischief he has wrought this time."

"I?" asked Loki, with a mockingly innocent expression. He shifted, making his chains rattle under his blanket. "Well. Isn't it nice to be over-estimated for a change."

"Loki," said Thor, "how did you know that my hammer would not work against those jotnar?"

"Because I took the time to think about it," snapped Loki, "as you would have done, had you half a brain in your head to think with."

"Shut your liar's mouth," bellowed Sif "before I ensure that you never open it again!"

Thor was too weary and hurt too much to listen to his best friend and his brother spat. "Hold, both of you," he said, struggling to sit up, even though it hurt. "The jotnar said that Father had promised them something," he continued, speaking to Loki. "What was it?"

Loki looked away, frowning. He let out a breath through his nose. "I don't know," he finally said, as though it irked him to admit it. "That is why I told you to ask your father."

_No_, thought Thor, _you told me to ask Father. Our father. _But he decided not to point out the inconsistency in Loki's statements. "Then we should ask him," he said instead. "Together."

Loki paused, then said "yes, I suppose we are overdue for a family chat."

"Your mother is waiting," said Sif. "She seemed to think that Loki would not speak to you if she were here." She gave Loki another glare. Loki just shrugged, giving his chains another rattle.

"You told her that he spoke?" Thor asked.

"The captain of the guard did," replied Sif. "She asked him, and he could not lie to his queen."

Thor had wanted to be the one to break the news to Mother, but it couldn't be helped now. The thought of Frigga waiting for him - waiting for them both, waiting to hear Loki speak after all this time - spurred Thor. He swung his legs out of the bed, and tested whether he could put his weight on his feet.

"My prince, please -" squeaked the Healer behind Sif, but Thor paid her no notice. Sif helped him up, and Thor found that he could stand, albeit with some difficulty. "Let us go to her," Thor said, and Sif helped him maneuver toward the door, limping a little on a knee that seemed to have gotten twisted when he had fallen off of his horse. When he reached the doorway he turned to look at his brother.

"Well?" he said. "Coming?"

Sif snickered, and the look Loki gave both of them would probably have frozen a Midgardian to the spot.

Loki had to be carried - chair and all - to the audience chamber where Odin and Frigga agreed to meet him. Loki managed to put on an ostentatious display of how humiliating this was by pretending not to be humiliated in the slightest. It was, Thor considered, a nice trick.

The chamber - not as big as the grand throne room, but not as intimate as the family chambers they occupied while apart from the court - had been a calculated choice on Odin's part. It managed to show Loki that he was still in disgrace, but in a way that was a private, family affair. Only Odin, Frigga and Freia were in the chamber when they entered, and after helping Thor to a chair next to Odin, Sif left as well. Thor wished that she could stay - she had been his best friend since they both were small, and he thought of her as family - but he knew that it was better for her to go. He did not even like the fact that Freia was there, but if his mother wanted her, he would not protest.

The guards set Loki's chair down before the four other family members and set about their work of fixing it, and the chains, to the floor. Once finished, they too departed, bowing to their king, and the door closed behind them.

"Well," said Loki after no one had spoken for a long moment. "Isn't this cozy."

Thor saw his mother's face stiffen as she looked at her youngest son. He could not blame her - being this close to Loki without the glass walls of his cell between them was not exactly a pleasant experience. He had lost more weight than Thor would have thought possible, considering that Loki had already been thin to begin with. His hair hung in lank hanks around his face, and his skin looked greasy and sallow. He smelled terrible. Freia was not bothering to hide her look of disgust as she stared at her nephew. Thor suddenly felt the urge to say something, to break the silence among his family.

"Father," he said, turning to Odin, "before I left, Loki told me that my hammer would not work against the jotnar - it was true. And the jotnar said that they had come to collect something you owed them. I do not know if there is a connection, but-"

"Of _course_ there is a connection," interrupted Loki, his voice caustic, "if you _think_. Your father thought of it." He turned to face Odin. "That is why you let him fight in your stead, was it not? Very clever, using your son to test the waters."

"What?" hissed Frigga, turning to her husband. "What is he saying?"

"But you knew, didn't you," continued Loki. "That it wouldn't work."

Now it was Thor who turned to his father in shock. "You knew?" was all he could think to say.

Odin's jaw was set. "I suspected," he finally said, "but was unsure."

"And you did not share your suspicion with me?" Thor said, feeling the flickers of rage stir within him. But when he turned to Loki, he saw that his brother was not even bothering to hide his smile as he stared intently at his family. _ A plow that sows discord_, Thor reminded himself, and willed himself to stay calm.

"He should not have had to," Loki said. "_A man's power comes from keeping his word _- or hasn't he had the talk with you yet? Odin must keep his word to maintain his power, and as his heir, your power stems from his. Any attempt to use that power to break a promise made by the Allfather results in... well, getting punched off of one's horse, and losing the power of one's hammer, it seems."

"If that were true," Thor said, "why did I not lose my hammer when battling the frost giants on Jotunheim?"

"Frost giants," said Loki with a sneer. "A conquered race of monsters under Odin's control, thrown petty privileges as one would throw scraps to a cur. No, I'm speaking of contractual agreements - offers between free actors for valuable consideration."

"I still do not understand-" began Thor, but Loki gave a theatrical sigh and rolled his eyes.

"Will you tell the story, _Allfather_?" he said. When Odin did not respond, Loki gave a magnanimous shrug. "Very well. I'll start, shall I?" He leaned back in his chair. "Rock giants," he started. "Two of them. Two brothers, actually. Who fought by the Allfather's side in the wars against the frost giants. Now, rock giants are rather a nasty lot - uncouth, brutish, rather stupid. Almost as nasty as frost giants - in my opinion, anyway. If you had let me destroy Jotenheim, we wouldn't be in this situation in the first place. Now-"

But Loki was interrupted by Frigga, who abruptly stood, white-lipped, and strode towards Loki. Without a word, she struck him with all of her considerable strength - so hard that the flat crack of her palm against his cheek seemed to ring through the room.

"Don't you _dare_-" was all she managed to say before Loki whipped his head back around, and spat a gobbet of blood-spattered foam in her face.

Friea's shriek of indignation and Thor's roar as he struggled to get to his feet were both drowned out by Odin bellowing "_ENOUGH_." And then, more quietly, "Frigga."

Frigga turned, head high, walked calmly back to her chair and sat, only then producing a handkerchief with which she wiped the expectorate away.

Loki opened his mouth, stretching his jaw before looking back up and continuing. "As I was saying," he said, "rock giants. Brutes but rather clever with their hands. Experts in metalwork and construction. And so the king of the Asgardians, finding himself the victor over the Nine Realms, decided to request that these two jotan brothers construct for him a palace worthy of his rule. And for good reason - you saw that hole they put me in." Loki addressed this last to Thor. "Did you know _that_ was the main dining hall? Where the king received his subjects and held his feasts? That _pit_? Pathetic."

Neither Odin nor Frigga changed their expressions, though Friea picked at a fingernail, looking uncomfortable.

"The jotun brothers agreed to build the palace - but for a price. And I speculate that it was a high price."

Thor glanced around the room. Even this minor chamber was opulent, all shining surfaces and shimmering light. The entire palace was magnificent, and it awed him to know that it had been built by only two, even if those two were giants. It was strange to think that those roughspun jotnar, with their shaggy beards and hairy hands had built the elegant structure. But he had no trouble believing that if they had, their price must have been astronomical.

"And as we are sitting here, I must presume that Odin agreed to that price, but asked that the giants wait to collect. However, that is where my knowledge of the story fails. So,_ Allfather_, perhaps you can enlighten us. Just what was it you promised those jotnar that was worth a palace, but required them to wait this long?"

Thor, Frigga and Freia all looked to Odin, who remained still and silent for a long moment. Thor began to feel a crawling sensation throughout his limbs and in his stomach. He glanced back at Loki, and saw that he was smiling again, leaning forward against the chains that held him to his chair, as though he were trying to lap up the mistrust he'd sent churning among his family.

"I promised," Odin said finally, "an Asgardian bride."

Both Freia and Frigga's jaws dropped. Thor felt utterly gobsmacked. They stared, Thor unable to believe what he had just heard. And then, breaking the silence, Loki snorted through his nose and started to laugh - chuckling at first and then bursting into a peal of laughter that went on so long, Thor worried his brother might choke.

"An Asgardian bride for a pair of rock giants?" gasped Loki, once he had gotten his laughter under control. "_Please_ tell me you had someone specific in mind - you must have, because that was your excuse, was it not? That she was too young to be married, and that they must wait to collect her."

Odin stayed silent, but as Thor watched, his eye glanced to where Frigga was sitting. For a moment, he did not understand - and then he realized. Not Frigga, but _Freia_.

"_Ohhh_," breathed Loki, realizing at the same time Thor did. He didn't laugh, but Thor thought that the face of an Asgardian princeling who had just received his first fully-grown warhorse for his birthday could not have held more sheer glee than Loki's face did at that moment.

Freia had gone stark white; Frigga went so red that her face looked nearly purple. "My _sister_!" hissed Frigga at her husband, so choked with rage that she could barely speak above a whisper. "How_ could _you - my sister is an Aesir, not a bargaining chip!" Her voice grew louder as she spoke, until she was shouting.

"It was to buy time only," said Odin, "until I could find a price to replace her."

"Oh, yes, of course," said Loki, lightly. "And what did you find?"

Odin's silence was all the answer needed. Freia buried her face in her hands and gave a muffled wail.

"Cheer up," said Loki. "Maybe it's love." This only sent Freia sobbing, and Frigga put an arm over her shoulders. She turned to glare at her son. Loki only smiled back.

"There must be something," Thor said. "Something they would accept in Freia's place." The giants already had something, in fact - they had Mjölnir. Although the hammer would not do them much good - they could not hope to even raise it from the ground - its loss seriously constrained Thor's ability to fight. And if Loki was right, until they found something to give to the rock giants in Freia's stead, Thor could not recover his weapon. He thought of all the weapons and strange artifacts they held in the palace, but all seemed far too dangerous to put into the hands of a pair of rock giants who could use them to put waste to Asgard, if they so chose.

"I doubt it," said Loki, with a slightly manic grin. "It's love, isn't it? And who would give up love for something material?" He snorted once in derision. "They're not nibelungen, after all."

Thor was baffled by this last comment. "What do you mean?"

Loki gave another dramatic sigh and said - more to the walls than to his family - "am I the only one in this palace who can read? Don't you remember the story of the nibelung who gave up love to forge that ring? You should at least remember, Allfather, I believe it gave you some trouble during the war against the frost giants. It had some rather appealing properties - the power to change one's shape at will, the strength of an Asgardian, the ability to attract the riches of Midgard, eternal youth..." Loki trailed off then, staring past Thor, his mocking smile fading into a thoughtful frown. "Huh," he said after some time. "Well it's a thought, isn't it?"

"Do you mean," Thor said, "to give them this ring in exchange for releasing Freia from the promise?"

Loki shrugged. "If it could be found. It was lost during the final battle of the war and has not been heard of since, or so the histories say. If it has not been destroyed, it should be... well, it should be on Midgard, shouldn't it?"

Thor's mind was reeling. Only a moment ago, Loki had only been interested in drinking in the strife he had caused by unearthing Odin's rash promise to the jotnar. Now, was he really trying to think of a way to help them - to help Freia in particular, who had always been cold to him?

"To put such an artefact into the hands of jotnar-" Odin began, but Frigga cut him off.

"Is preferable to giving them your sister-in-law in trade!" she said, then turned to Loki. "Do you know how to find it? This ring?"

Loki considered the question - again, Thor noticed, with no trace of the mockery he had evinced earlier. "It is possible," he started, slowly, "that the Tesseract could be used to trace it, but to bend it to that purpose, I would need..." he trailed off again. "A certain amount of expertise," he concluded, not quite looking at Thor when he said it.

"Erik," Thor said quietly. "You mean that you need Erik."

Loki raised his head defiantly, seeming to force himself to meet Thor's eyes. "Yes," he said. "Him."

"He would never do it," Thor said. Loki had taken control of Erik's mind during his assault on Midgard, and Thor knew that there was no way Erik would ever willingly participate in any activity in which Loki were remotely involved.

But then the thought came, unbidden - _Jane might_.

He pushed the thought away. No - he could not bring Jane anywhere near his brother. But she was a brilliant scientist - he had seen that for himself, and heard Erik talk about her accomplishments. If anyone could figure out how to adjust the Tesseract's power to find this artifact, it would be her. And if he were there to protect her-

"Well, in that case I'm afraid there is nothing I can do," said Loki. "Do invite me to the wedding, Aunt Freia. I so hope you'll be anatomically compatible with your new husbands." And he smiled again, that vicious little smile, as Freia burst into fresh sobs.

"Wait," said Thor. "If I could find someone to assist with the Tesseract, what must we do?"

Loki frowned back at Thor. "Take it to Midgard," he said, "adjust it to locate the ring. Take the ring. Return."

"And if I did this-" Thor started.

"No," Loki said, "we. I could not teach you what you need to know of the Tesseract if we had a year to prepare. Either I go to Midgard with you, or it's wedding bells."

"Why?" asked Thor. "You tried to kill me, my friends, to destroy the realm I was sworn to protect. You rejected our family. Why would you help us now?"

Loki shrugged - again, deliberately rattling his chains. "I'm sure I couldn't say," he said, voice dripping with sarcasm.

Thor turned to Odin, who looked more weary than ever. "Father," Thor started, but Odin held up one hand.

"Loki Laufeyson," said Odin, "do you give your word that you will retrieve this artifact and return it - for the good of Asgard?"

Loki scowled at Odin, his jaw clenched, but he held his chin high as he said "I do."

Odin stood then, crossed to where Loki sat, and knelt before the chair. Before Thor could finish wondering what his father was doing, he heard the crack of Loki's chain being removed from the floor - first one, then the other. Odin stood again, stepping back and holding a hand out to Loki. Loki ignored it, and used the back of his chair to get to his feet.

"That's that, I suppose," Loki said, looking over his family once again. "But-"

"What?" asked Thor, his stomach twisting with the fear that there was some loophole they had missed, something that would allow Loki to break his word then and there.

"May I have a proper bath," Loki asked, "before we go?"

* * *

Loki had time for more than a proper bath before they could leave for Midgard. At Freia's insistence, Thor allowed himself to be helped back to the Healing Room, endured the scolding he received from the Healers for getting out of bed so soon, and allowed Freia and her staff to patch, poultice, bandage and dose him. Freia had apparently shaken off the fear she had felt while speaking to Loki - she had stilled her tears, and performed her duties with a brisk efficiency that left the other Healers breathless as they tried to follow her lead. Her eyes, though, were hard and red, and remained so as Thor watched her work. Finally, she finished, and insisted that Thor be left alone to get a good night's sleep.

Thor did not sleep. He lay in the dark wondering if he was really going to do this - could he trust Loki enough to take him into Jane's presence? Could he himself protect Jane if Loki turned on them? He thought that he could. Although he did not have Mjölnir, Loki did not have that staff that had caused so much trouble during their last confrontation, and without arms, Thor had the distinct advantage over his smaller brother.

Even so, Thor could not suppress the uneasy feeling that the family had played directly into Loki's hands that afternoon. He did not believe that Loki had just happened to think of this ring on Midgard at the correct time - it was far too convenient, even for Loki. Thor was certain that Loki had been saving this piece of information for the right time, to make a bid for release from his incarceration.

Thor shifted in bed, which he had to admit, hurt much less than it had done prior to the Healers' ministrations. Was Loki simply trying to get released from his cell, or did he have another purpose? Thor thought back to their time on Midgard. Loki had been in control of the Chitauri army, but the question remained, how had he gotten hold of them? Thor had never before dealt with Chitauri, though he had heard stories of them from warriors of Odin's vintage who had. They were, according to the tales, a vicious hive mind, attracted and obedient to whatever leader who promised them the most carnage, but shifting in loyalty should they be denied the opportunity for war. They were nearly incapable of leading, but always followed.

Thor had been certain - as he had told his friends - that Loki had promised the Tesseract to someone in exchange for control over the Chitauri, but Loki's obdurate silence had prevented him from finding out just who - or what - that was. Loki would not promise the Tesseract to the Chitauri themselves, that was certain, for they would have no use for such an object. Thus, it followed that the entity to whom Loki had made this promise was still out there, and it was possible that Loki might be making a bid to slip Asgard's grasp and return - with the Tesseract - to this entity, causing what Thor was sure would be dire consequences for all nine realms. Was he really going to travel to Midgard with the Tesseract and Loki in tow?

_If I am so uncertain about this plan, I should not do it at all_, Thor thought. But it was not so simple - his father's word, meaning the rule of Asgard, over all nine realms, was on the line. And his mother's anguish. And his aunt's autonomy. No matter what he told himself, he could not say that these things did not matter, even in the face of either Loki's potential treachery or Jane's safety. And then, there was Mjölnir - he must get his hammer back from the jotnar at all cost.

_no, not at all cost not all_

He had once been willing to lay down not only his power and his rule, but his own life to protect Jane - but he could not deny the sense of relief and happiness he had felt when his heritage and hammer had returned to him. They were things he could not give up lightly, especially when not just his friends, but his entire realm, needed him.

He wanted to ask Odin for his help, his advice, but something about the revelations that had been made that day stopped him cold. For his father to have made a promise like that to those jotnar - a foolish promise, a greedy promise, a rash promise-

_I made many a rash decision when I was a young king and there are those I have lived to regret_

shook Thor's confidence in his father in a way nothing - not even his own banishment - had ever done before.

_But perhaps this is what it is to be a king_, thought Thor. _ To lie awake in the night with no answers, knowing in the morning that you must decide - for good or ill. Knowing that the decision may haunt you for years to come_.

And at that moment he wished with all his heart that he could be back in Midgard again, on the roof of Jane's building, gazing at the stars, with no intimation of what was to happen in his - in their - future.

He could not have said whether he slept, but at dawn he rose, testing his limbs. The Healers' spells had done their work, and he was much better already - steady on his feet, with his nose only giving a faint throb now and again. Satisfied, he crept to his own suite of rooms in the palace, making sure he did not encounter any Healers who might force him back into bed. After washing and dressing, he went to the kitchens and greatly agitated the cooks by asking them to make up a plate of breakfast for him to take away, instead of sitting down with the rest of the family for the meal. He took the plate, and made his way to Loki's rooms.

As a boon in exchange for Loki's promise, Loki had been allowed to stay in his own rooms again, albeit with a guard posted at every possible exit. It was the guard, not Loki, who gave Thor permission to enter. He crossed through the large sitting room, which looked unnaturally bare, as it had been stripped of all of Loki's books - a precaution, lest he have any tomes on harmful magics. Thor set the plate of breakfast on a side table, and went to find his brother.

He found Loki in the washroom, standing over a basin before a mirror, cutting his hair. He used a small, sharp knife, and twisted each lock between his fingers before cutting it at the nape of his neck. Between that and the fact that he'd been able to clean himself more thoroughly than he had in months, Loki was looking like a slightly emaciated version of himself again.

"Good morning," said Loki to Thor's reflection in the mirror. "Ready to go?"

"I brought you some breakfast," said Thor. "You ought to eat something - you look as though we were trying to starve you to death."

"If you had seen the food they tried to give me, you might have agreed," said Loki to the mirror. He cut through another lock of hair with a soft snick of the knife.

Thor had seen the food, and it had seemed perfectly normal to him, but he wasn't about to argue with Loki's revisionist history.

"And I came to congratulate you," Thor continued. "It was very well done."

Loki's expression did not change, but he took his time twisting his next lock of hair before cutting. "Yes," he finally said, "it was. Thank you."

"Does this ring of yours even exist? It is rather convenient."

"As a matter of fact, it does," said Loki, "and from what I understand, its powers may range even beyond what the histories list. But we will have to find it to be sure." Another snick of the knife, another lock of hair fell from Loki's fingers to the floor.

"Can you be certain that the jotnar will accept it in trade for Aunt Freia?"

"No," said Loki, "but I have reasonable confidence. The rock giants and nibelungen have been enemies for an age - the nibelungen allied with the frost giants in the war, you know. The prospect of gaining a valued nibel artifact may sweeten the trade for the rock giants." He cut through the final lock of hair, and set the knife on the edge of his basin. "So you see, I am trying to help, even if you don't care for it."

"Only in exchange for release from your cell? I find that difficult to believe, brother."

"Go down to that pit and sit in there for a week, and I wager you would change your mind." Loki turned his head to the right, then the left, studying the effect of his efforts in the mirror. They seemed to satisfy him, so he took up a comb and began to sweep his hair back from his face.

"So," Loki said, "where will we find the esteemed Doctor Selvig?"

"We will not," said Thor. "We are going to see the esteemed Doctor Foster."

"Doctor Fos - _oh_," said Loki, breaking into a smile. "I'm looking forward to-"

Loki did not finish stating just what he was looking forward to. Thor shot his hand out, and before Loki could react, Thor had him by the hair with his left hand, snatching the small knife from the basin with his right. He jerked Loki's head back, pressing the knife into the soft flesh under Loki's chin. Loki started to struggle, but Thor let go of his hair and pinned Loki's left arm to his side.

"Just in case you thought that you were in command of this endeavor," Thor said, "I want to make a few things very clear. First, you are to do precisely as I say while we are on Midgard. You will not leave my sight unless I give you my express permission. Do you swear that you will do this?"

Loki was taking only the shallowest of breaths, trying to keep his neck clear of the blade. "Yes," he said.

"Second, I will have custody of both the Tesseract and the ring, if it is found. You are not to touch either of them unless I tell you that you may. Do you swear to abide by this, Loki?"

Loki did not answer right away, so Thor gripped his arm until Loki blanched and hissed in his breath. "Yes," Loki said between his teeth.

"And finally," said Thor, "you are not to lay a single finger on Jane, or perform any magic that would harm her. If you do, I will kill you before you have time to take another breath. Do you understand me?"

At this, Loki's smile returned. "Oh yes," he said. "For the first time, I think, I understand you perfectly."

"Swear then," said Thor, tightening his grip on Loki's arm again, which took the smile off of Loki's face. His arm was so thin, Thor thought he could break it without much more pressure.

Loki swallowed, his throat pulsing against the blade of the knife. "I swear," he said.

Thor let go of Loki, letting the knife drop and clatter to the floor. "Eat," Thor said, walking towards the door, "and meet me in the stables in an hour. We will depart to see Heimdall from there. And when we get back, you'll apologize to mother on your knees."

Loki did not answer Thor, but stood still before his basin, rubbing his left arm where Thor had gripped it. Thor hesitated on the threshold, feeling slightly sick. _It had to be done_, he told himself. _I had to do it to ensure that the Tesseract - and Jane - will be safe_. But he hated how easy it had been to overpower his brother's frail form, hated how easy it would have been to snap Loki's arm with a twist of his fingers. But most of all, he'd hated how much he'd wanted to do it, to make Loki pay in pain for what he had done to Midgard - and to Thor.

When Loki looked up again and saw Thor still waiting in the doorframe, his smile returned, mocking as ever.

"I would not worry overmuch," Loki said. "This is going to be fun."


	4. Chapter 4

**Part 3: Midgard**

_Wer hälfe mir?_

_Gehorchen muss ich_

_dem leiblichen Bruder,_

_der mich in Bande gelegt._

_ -Mime_

Al didn't sleep for the entire night after he got home from teaching those three dyke bitches a lesson. He just stayed up and _looked_ at it.

It was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. It was gold - he thought - but it wasn't the bright, brash yellow gold that he remembered from his mother's sparse jewelry box. It was a muted color, and if the light caught it just right, it seemed to give off an iridescent sheen. It was thick, and when he finally brought himself to take it out of the box and hold it in his palm, it had a satisfying weight. Still, he didn't put it on. He couldn't. It was too perfect.

He looked at it, and he looked at it, and he looked at it, until his mouth began to feel dry. He ignored the feeling for as long as he could, but eventually admitted to himself that he needed a glass of water. Feeling like he was moving in slow motion, he picked_ it _up, put it in one palm, closed his fist around it, and stuffed the fist into his trouser pocket.

He hated not looking at it. He never wanted to not look at it. But having it in his hand was the next best thing.

Al's roommate Mike was cracking a beer when Al got into the kitchen. "Little early for that, bro," said Al.

Mike snorted. "Whatever," he said, and jerked his head to the stove clock. The clock read 12:02.

It was noon. It was _noon_? Al stared at the clock, fiddling with the ring in his pocket. He had stayed up all night and all morning just looking at that thing, and now it was noon.

"Fuck," Al said.

"Fuck is right," said Mike, swigging at his beer. "You jerk off all morning and your dick's gonna fall off."

"Shut up, fag," said Al. He opened the fridge and got a beer for himself.

"Hey, those are mine," said Mike.

"I'll buy you a case," Al muttered into the can. All he'd wanted to do was get laid, for fuck's sake. That's all. And that redhead tease bitch - he bet _that_ carpet didn't match the drapes - and her ugly, fat friends had fucked his night. They owed him.

_god what if they called the police what if_

He pulled the ring from his pocket. Not looking at it made him itch behind the eyes, but when it was there, in front of him, the world seemed to snap back into focus.

_Fuck that. They don't know your last name or where you live. You made Big Red and Fatty open all the doors - there's no fingerprints. They got nothing. And you got me._

"Yeah," said Al. "Yeah."

"What the shit are you saying?" asked Mike.

Al had forgotten Mike was in the room, and he jumped a little. "Nothing," he muttered, wishing Mike would go away and leave them (no, him, what did he mean _them_?) alone.

"What have you got?" Mike was not going away. "Lemme see it."

Mike snatched at the ring in Al's hand, but Al jerked it back just in time.

"Fuck, dude," Al said, "that's mine."

"Lemme just see it," said Mike, making another snatch at the ring.

"Don't be such a fucknugget," said Al.

"I just wanna _see_," said Mike, whining a little. God, he could be annoying. Al had to find a job and his own place soon or else he was going to go out of his goddamn mind.

Mike made another snatch at the ring, and without thinking, Al jammed it onto his finger, just to keep Mike off the damn thing. He swatted Mike's hand away, but when he did, there was a crack.

"Ow, _fuck_," yelled Mike. "What the fuck, dude?"

"What?" said Al. "Stop being such a goddamn baby."

Mike held his hand up in front of his face. "I think you broke my finger!"

Mike's index finger did look kind of red, but there was no way Al could have broken it. He'd barely connected with Mike's hand. "You are such a little pussy," Al said, and walked into the living room with his beer.

Mike followed. "Come on man, it _kills_."

Al wasn't listening. He was looking at the ring on his right hand. It fit perfectly, the metal cool and smooth against his finger. It looked_ good_, like total pussy magnet good. Like Tony fucking _Stark_ good.

_Redheaded cumdumpster did you a favor after all._

"Oh yeah," Al replied. "She sure did."

"What are you _talking_ about?" whined Mike. "Seriously bro, I think I need to go to the emergency room or something."

"Will you shut the fuck up?" said Al. It made his eyes itch when Mike interrupted his train of thought. It kind of hurt.

"You are such a dick," said Mike, so Al punched him in the face.

Mike flew backwards, smashing through the drywall that separated Mike's room from the living room, and crashing into the exposed brick that formed the outer wall of the bedroom. The bricks held, but seemed to crumple and crunch around Mike's prone form. Mike moaned, tears running down his face and snot dripping from his nose.

Al stared at his roommate, and then looked at his fist. His hand, which should have hurt, didn't even sting. The ring gleamed up at him, and he turned his hand one way, then the other, admiring it. What had he been thinking, not putting it on before? It didn't just look _good_ on him. It looked perfect.

Mike's sobs seemed to float up to him, like something under deep water that didn't matter much anyway. It was several minutes, or maybe an hour before he realized that Mike was moaning "Aa-alll... Aaa-aa-allll..." over and over again.

Al tore his eyes from his hand and looked at Mike. Mike had maybe tried to crawl away from the imprint he'd made in the brick wall, but had given up halfway across the room. He was still crying while he moaned.

Al stepped through the hole Mike's body had made in the drywall. It was vaguely Mike-shaped - _like a motherfucking Bugs Bunny_, Al thought. He walked toward Mike, but then stopped, catching his own reflection in Mike's bedroom mirror.

His hair was thicker. He had no idea how it could be, but it was. He stepped closer, nearly putting his forehead against the glass, riffling his fingers through his combover - but now he didn't _need_ a combover. He mussed it, turning his head to see it at another angle. His hairline had grown in, at least half an inch down his forehead.

"Aa-aall - _ple-e-ease_," moaned Mike from the floor. Al didn't hear him. His _neck_ was thicker. He made a fist and then flexed a bicep in the mirror. It was _bigger_. He looked like - well, he looked like the Hulk, if the Hulk were person-colored instead of green and-

_And if the Hulk looked like a pussy magnet, like Tony motherfucking Stark, right Al?_

"Yeah," said Al. "Yeah. Right."

This, he decided, was going to be _good_.

* * *

"She is... brushing her teeth," Heimdall said to Thor.

"Are we going yet?" asked Loki.

"For the last time, we are going to allow her to have her privacy," Thor said.

"As private as you can get with Heimdall peeking," muttered Loki. "Did you watch her bathing, Heimdall?"

Heimdall and Thor both ignored Loki, as they had done for over an hour. Heimdall had found Jane after some searching, asleep in a bed that was in a room at the top of a large building in New York. Thor had made them wait as Heimdall watched her wake, make herself a pot of the hot brown Midgardian drink that Thor liked, and dress for her day. If Heimdall had seen her bathing, he had tactfully not mentioned it.

Thor knew that despite his stoic exterior, Heimdall was deeply disturbed about another set of jotnar making their way into Asgard without his discovering them immediately. When the frost giants had previously infiltrated the realm, Loki had been directly responsible for veiling them from Heimdall's eyes. Thor was not certain how these rock giants had accomplished this same veiling, but once he had Mjölnir back in his hands, he intended to find out. But before that could happen, both he and Heimdall had to focus on what was at hand.

"Does it seem as though Jane will be leaving her home?" Thor asked Heimdall. He wanted to meet with Jane on the street - he was not about to take Loki into Jane's home uninvited.

"I believe so," Heimdall replied. "She is putting on a jacket and a scarf."

Thor relaxed. Not too much longer, then.

"And there appears to be..." Heimdall trailed off, contemplative. "Ah - she is speaking to Ms. Lewis on the building's communications system."

Darcy too - well, that could not be helped, Thor supposed.

"All right," he said, hefting the Tesseract in its glass container. "Heimdall, tell us when she is about to pass a place where we can arrive undetected."

"How much longer?" complained Loki. Thor and Heimdall ignored him.

"She is exiting the building now," Heimdall said, "and speaking to Ms. Lewis, who was waiting for her outside. They are walking now together... and - no, that street is still too crowded."

Thor's hand tensed on the handle of the Tesseract's box.

"She is coming upon an alleyway that is deserted - five blocks away," Heimdall said.

"All right," Thor said to Loki. "Ready?"

"For several hours now," Loki said, but he took the other handle of the Tesseract box without further complaint.

Thor closed his eyes, feeling Heimdall's spell move around him, anchoring him to the place in Midgard where they would arrive. When he felt the spell solidify, he twisted the Tesseract case's handle, and he and Loki _went_.

It was a different experience than travelling by bifrost. The bifrost was a bit like a road - one could feel oneself traveling along the path it opened between the point of origin and the destination. Travel by Tesseract seemed to rip one apart before assembling one back together, and the experience rattled Thor. He had to take a moment to catch his breath - but he was not so jarred that he did not remember to yank the Tesseract out of Loki's hands as soon as they reached Midgardian soil.

Loki gave him a look, and held his hands up in a decidedly innocent pose. He had already transfigured his Asgardian garb to a black Midgardian suit, topcoat and tie, the only ornamentation a black and white check scarf which he had wrapped around his neck, a nod to the different, cooler season on Midgard.

"Hold still," Loki said, and cast the spell on Thor. Thor found himself in another suit and topcoat - gray instead of black, with a blue tie. The Tesseract case in his hand now appeared to be a slim and opaque leather case.

Thor tugged at the tie. "I do not like this," he said.

"How unfortunate for you," Loki replied.

"When I was in Midgard with Jane, she gave me a pair of blue trousers that were very comfortable-"

"You are a prince of Asgard, and I will not dress you as a laborer," snapped Loki. "Now go, if you don't want to miss them."

_We may need to have another chat about who is in command_, considered Thor, but he didn't have time to get into an argument with his brother now. Peering around the corner, he saw Jane and Darcy in the distance, crossing a street and heading toward the block on which he stood.

"All right," Thor said. "Stay exactly where you are, and do not move until I return. Is that clear?"

Loki raised his eyebrows and rolled his eyes at the wall opposite. Thor took that as a yes. He took a deep breath, held it, stepped out of the alley into the sidewalk, and began to walk.

Jane and Darcy were chatting, only vaguely aware of what was in front of them. Jane saw him first, and stopped, her already huge eyes going wider as she recognized him.

"And so he was like 'I just don't know if I can be with someone who discounts the influence of David Foster Wallace on twenty-first century literature,' and I was like whatever because clearly he was the one dismissing the impact of _The Crying of Lot 49 _on _The Broom of the System _and it was just _such_ a boner-killer," Darcy was saying, before she realized that Jane was no longer next to her. She looked back, startled. "What?" she said.

Jane was not looking at Darcy. "Hi," she breathed, barely louder than a whisper.

Thor felt as though his tongue had attached itself to the roof of his mouth. He couldn't say a word, or even let out his breath.

"Oh my _God_!" yelled Darcy. She ran to Thor, jumping to throw her arms around his neck. This at least had the effect of forcing the breath out of Thor. "This is so _crazy_!" squealed Darcy in his ear. She let go of him, and looked back at Jane. "Well?" she said, gesturing to Thor. "Like, make out or something."

"I got your letter," said Jane, who didn't move.

"Oh," said Thor. "That is good."

"And the flowers. They were beautiful."

"Pepper said you did not want a haunch of goat," Thor said.

"Oh. Yeah, no, I wouldn't have had any way to cook it."

"Ah," said Thor. "I am glad you liked the flowers, then."

"They were beautiful."

"Yes, you said so."

"Oh - yeah I did - uh-" said Jane.

Darcy looked from Thor to Jane, then back to Thor. "_Seriously_?" she said.

Jane walked toward Thor, slowly and carefully, as though she were crossing a narrow bridge that spanned a chasm. When she was in front of him, she reached out a tentative hand and touched his arm, as if to reassure herself that he really was there.

"I like your suit," she said.

Thor decided that he, too, liked the suit. He took Jane's hand and kissed it, hoping that he would think of something dashing and romantic to say before he finished. He did not.

"I knew you'd come back," Jane whispered - and that was it, he knew, that was the moment to take her in his arms and kiss her in a way that expressed all that he could not say. But he couldn't bring himself to do it, not having come for her, but for Asgard. It would have been a lie.

"Jane," he said, "I need your help." And he watched as she tried not to let her face fall. His heart sank with her expression, and he cursed himself for not coming sooner.

"What is it?" she asked.

A couple pushed past them on the sidewalk. "Perhaps there is somewhere we could sit and talk?" Thor said.

"Oh - yeah," Jane said. Thor gave her his arm, and to his relief, she took it. They began to walk slowly toward the alley where Loki was waiting. Thor felt the nervous knot in his stomach tighten with every step they took.

"I wanted to thank you for telling Pepper about me, actually," said Jane. "She's an amazing businesswoman - she completely changed my life."

"Are you working with her now?" asked Thor. That would explain the move from New Mexico to New York.

"Yeah, her and Tony," she said with a slightly embarrassed grin. "And I'm teaching a course at Columbia this semester."

Thor had no idea what this meant, but Jane looked so pleased about it that he only said "that is wonderful."

"I'm her TA!" piped up Darcy, who had been following them and evidently listening in.

Jane's smile widened - it made her look more like herself again. "She switched majors."

"Astrophysics is _so_ my jam," said Darcy, with a smug smile.

"I told her she could TA for me as long as she kept a 3.3 GPA," Jane said. "She... has a 4.0."

"See?" said Darcy. They had almost reached the alley by then, and Thor came to a stop, still not quite ready for what had to be done.

"I keep telling her that hot guys don't fall out of the sky all the time, but-" Jane started, grinning.

"Whatever, you don't _know_," retorted Darcy. "You're supposed to have a brother, right?" she said, eyeing Thor suggestively.

Jane whirled around to Darcy. "Uh, yeah, the xenocidal psychopath who destroyed half of Manhattan?" she said. "That would be like dating Osama bin Laden."

Thor wasn't sure what an Osama bin Laden was, but from Jane's tone, it wasn't anything good.

"He has a beard?" asked Darcy, making a face. "_Ew_."

Jane sighed, turning back to Thor. "A 4.0. At _Columbia_. Seriously, I have no idea."

"So how's Fandral?" asked Darcy, unperturbed.

"Jane," said Thor, the knot in his stomach twisting in an extremely uncomfortable way, "I need to tell you-"

"No - no, it's okay," Jane said quickly. "I'm glad you're here now. It's been so long, I just-"

"No, Jane, you must understand that - that-"

"Well? Are you going to introduce us?" came a voice from the alley. Thor did not have to turn around - the reaction of confusion, then recognition, then horror on Jane's face told him that Loki had just stepped into view.

"You're _him_," she said, staring over Thor's shoulder.

"Jane, I promise you-" Thor started, but before he could finish, Darcy shoved past them to squint up at Loki. She examined him for a moment.

"I was to understand that you had a beard," she said accusingly.

Loki looked at Darcy, then at Thor. "What is _that_?" he said, pointing at Darcy.

Thor sighed, and rubbed his forehead with one hand.

* * *

_Three hundred and sixty-seven_.

The number ran through Jane's head as she walked with her arm in Thor's. _Three hundred and sixty-seven_. That was how many people died in New York that day.

_And he killed them_.

After Loki's odd encounter with Darcy, Thor had not introduced him to Jane. Instead, he had snapped at his brother to walk exactly ten steps in front of them, and to not say another word. Loki had given the three of them a frosty look, and then done exactly as he was told. So there he was, walking with his hands stuffed into the pockets of his topcoat, looking up at the buildings around them with mild interest, staying ahead of them as though he were on an invisible leash.

_Three hundred and sixty-seven_.

The questions crowded Jane's mind - the "how could you bring him here"s and the "what were you thinking"s. But a look at Thor's troubled expression told her that even if she vocalized her questions, she wouldn't be saying anything that he hadn't already thought of himself. So instead, she took his arm and started leading the group to the small cafe where she had been planning on taking Darcy to brunch. The cafe didn't serve particularly good food, but it tended to be almost deserted on Friday mornings, when Jane had her day off from teaching. She liked the fact that she had found a quiet oasis in the middle of the city to grade papers and create lesson plans over coffee and french toast. It would be as good a place as any to find out just what was going on.

Walking with her arm on Thor's was a surreal enough experience, she thought, as they continued up the sidewalk. It had been a year - no, more than a year, almost a year and a half - since she had last seen him in person. And it had been seven months since - well, since the incident. The attack.

_Three hundred and sixty-seven_.

* * *

When she got the call about the job in Tromsø Jane had been utterly thrilled. Her work theorizing on the Einstein-Rosen bridge was finally gaining her a measure of fame - academically speaking, at least - despite her agreement with S.H.I.E.L.D. that she would not publish about her encounters with Asgardians. She had felt a bit guilty about this at first, but admitted that the rest of the world was likely not ready for the news that otherworldly beings might come and go - and possibly wreak destruction upon - the earth as they pleased. And S.H.I.E.L.D. had helped her get funding, equipment, resources. Her career was taking off, she had always wanted to travel, and a stint working at the observatory in Tromsø would give her some international renown. She had been naive, she realized now, to think that was all it was.

So she had packed her bags and hugged Darcy goodbye, racing to meet the tight deadline for her flight. The only person she didn't manage to get in touch with before leaving was Erik. Agent Coulson had only said that he was "unavailable," and had refused to provide any further explanation. She'd been angry about that, and had been sharp with him on the telephone. She regretted it now. She had never spoken to Agent Coulson again.

The news came a short time after she'd gotten to Norway. She had been tired the day before, had gone to bed early, and woke to the Norwegian press reporting an extraterrestrial attack on New York City. She had sat glued to her computer with her fellow colleagues, blowing off the work day and watching English-language news streams that were reporting information. It was on one of the streams that she saw it - the photo of downtown Manhattan, one of the huge fish-snake-turtle things flying through the air, and the blurred form a man flying toward it.

But even though the photo was blurry, she could still see it. The flash of blond hair, the silver of his armor gleaming in the sun, and in his hand, the hammer.

She had scrambled, then, commandeering her laptop to the protests of her colleagues, trying to find a flight - _any_ flight - to New York. There were, of course, none. A no-fly zone had been instituted around the city - Fox News aired a rather nasty comment about exceptions being made for Stark Industry private planes, and had to recant once it was confirmed that Tony Stark had been one of the tiny group of men and women who had fought off the invasion. But no commercial planes could get through. Jane booked a flight to Washington D.C. with the idea that she'd drive up, but that was when S.H.I.E.L.D. clamped its collective fist down, cancelling her ticket and revealing that they had been the ones to send her to Norway in the first place. But the agents in Tromsø did not tell her why she had been sent, or why she was not permitted to return.

In the meantime, there was almost no information about Thor in the news. The media had begun to profile the heroic group that had fought the alien invasion at incredible odds, with Tony Stark carrying most of the press appearances. He was the most visible - the spangled Captain America was also prominent, though he never appeared out of his uniform. The green beast which was apparently called a Hulk received a lot of recognition, but he never made any public appearances, and no one seemed to know who he was. There were two more, a man and a woman, but aside from a few photographs, they were not identified by name, and were the subjects of wild speculation on the part of the public. Coverage of Thor was practically nonexistent - there were only a few blurred photos of him flying, and the name "Thor," to give evidence that he'd been there at all. Jane suspected that S.H.I.E.L.D. was suppressing the information again - under the reasoning that one alien invasion was enough, but two might be overkill for the general populace.

Jane fought for days to get back to the United States, but the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents refused to allow her to even leave Tromsø. She argued, she threatened, she cajoled, and - she was a little ashamed to admit - on some nights, she cried with the exhaustion and frustration of it.

But she woke one morning nearly three weeks later to a knock at her hotel room door, and a woman in a sleek black suit. "Good morning Doctor Foster," the woman had said. "I've been asked to escort you to Tromsø Airport."

Jane had just blinked at her in disbelief.

"Please read this," the woman had said, and handed her an envelope. The note inside was brief, but sent Jane scrambling to pack her luggage and hustle out of the door as quickly as she could.

_Dear Doctor Foster,_

_We understand that you have been trying to reach New York City - would you please allow us to help you do so in exchange for a moment of your time when you arrive?_

_I look forward to meeting you in person._

_P. Potts, COO, Stark Industries_

It was Jane's second ride on a private jet, and she was far too nervous to enjoy it. She paced, she twitched, she jounced, she tapped the armrest all the way to New York, where she was greeted at the terminal by none other than Pepper Potts herself.

Jane recognized Pepper from when she was on the cover of Forbes Magazine the year before, and barely managed to stammer out a greeting. But Pepper had been so kind, with her open smile and straightforward manner, that Jane felt herself at ease for the first time since she had found out about the invasion. Jane had been whisked from the airport, through customs and into a limo before she could come to grips with what was really happening. In the limo she'd been greeted with the sight of an enormous bouquet, and an envelope which Pepper had handed to her. Pepper had given her the space and the time to read the contents of the note, and had looked out the window so that when the tears pricked Jane's eyes, she wouldn't be embarrassed.

"So he's gone again," Jane said, once she trusted herself to speak.

"He had to go," Pepper said, in a gentle tone. "He was broken up that he couldn't see you, but he didn't have a choice."

"I don't see why-" Jane started, but the expression on Pepper's face made her stop. There was something she wasn't saying, that she didn't want to say in the car.

"Let's have dinner," Pepper suggested, and Jane acquiesced. She stared out of the windows as they drove, marvelling at how bustling the city was - how quickly it seemed to be rallying to put itself back together.

They drove uptown to a section of the city that had remained relatively untouched, and stopped at a posh-looking restaurant, the name of which Jane had no idea how to pronounce. Pepper led Jane straight through to a private room at the back. This relieved Jane a bit - she was wearing jeans and a flannel shirt with a t-shirt underneath, and felt extremely underdressed, especially when compared to Pepper's tailored suit and Louboutin heels. Pepper ordered them a bottle of white wine, the first sip of which felt like a breath of cool air to Jane's tired body. Then Pepper opened the small satchel she was carrying, and drew out a file folder. She began to take out large pieces of paper and lay them out on the table, one by one. They were photographs - all of them of Thor, all of them taken during the attack. Unlike the photos she had seen on the news feeds, these were crisp, clear and colorful, giving Jane the impression that she could reach through them and touch him.

"Fury - S.H.I.E.L.D. - is keeping all information about Thor under - well, basically it's a lockdown," said Pepper.

Jane nodded "We have a dialogue for nasty, invasive aliens but none for heroic Asgardians," she said. She'd expected Pepper to smile at that, but Pepper didn't smile. Instead, she drew out another, smaller set of photographs, and began to lay them on the table, on top of the pictures of Thor.

These photographs showed a dark-haired thin man, first in a black suit, and then in a set of armor that had a sort of similarity in style to Thor's, but included a huge horned helm. "They were taken in Stuttgart, Germany," Pepper explained, "and they're under lockdown as well. I had to get special permission from Fury to show you these - Tony's got quite a lot of say in the organization now, but even his influence only goes so far. But since you've been working with S.H.I.E.L.D., and you knew Thor from before - well, we all agreed that you deserved to know about him."

Jane's eyes kept returning to one picture in particular - the dark-haired man striking another man in the face with some odd-looking instrument, just over his eye. It wasn't the violence of the photograph that caught her, but the expression on the dark-haired man's face, a sort of satisfaction that bordered on pleasure. It made the wine she was drinking taste acidy in her mouth.

"He's from Asgard," said Jane.

Pepper nodded. "His name is Loki. He was behind the invasion," she said, "and he's Thor's brother."

Jane's first instinct was to say "no he's not." But she didn't. She saw the similarities - not between the two men's appearances, but in their strange clothing, in the way they carried themselves.

"So I was sent to Norway," she said.

"It was Phil's idea - Agent Coulson, I mean," said Pepper, "and I think he should have told you why he was doing it, but-"

"Oh, he is _so_ going to get it when I see him," said Jane, but her grin faded almost immediately at the look on Pepper's face. "Oh my God," Jane. "How - did anybody else -" and then she felt a jolt, as though a fist had squeezed her heart. "Erik? Is Erik okay?"

"Yeah - he's fine, he's here in New York, you can see him after dinner," Pepper said hurriedly, and Jane slumped over the table, holding her forehead in one hand, limp with relief. Erik was okay, Thor was okay, Darcy was okay - Jane had texted her when the plane landed, and gotten an almost immediate response. But that meant Jane was lucky. So many hadn't been.

"How many people?" she asked.

"The official count?" said Pepper. "Three hundred and sixty-seven."

Jane nodded, took a sip of wine that turned into a gulp, had to cough to keep from choking, then reached out and turned the photograph - the one with that _expression _- over. Pepper took this cue to gather the photographs up again, and place them back in the folder.

"Thor took Loki back to Asgard," Pepper continued. "That's why he couldn't stay. But he'll come back. He told me how much he misses you."

"Thanks," said Jane, and let Pepper pour her another glass.

At that moment, the door to their room burst open, and a man strode in. Jane nearly dropped her glass - it was Tony Stark. _The_ Tony Stark. He spread his arms in a gesture that managed to be both magnanimous and cocky. "Ladies!" he said. "Am I late?"

"You're always late," Pepper said, giving him an indulgent smile, and her cheek to kiss, which he did. Then he stuck his hand out at Jane.

"Tony," he said, and Jane shook. "So, did she say yes?" he asked Pepper.

"I haven't asked yet," Pepper said.

"Oh!" Tony yanked a chair out from under the table, sat, and helped himself to a swallow from Pepper's wine glass. "Well, Doctor Foster-"

"Jane," Jane interjected, beginning to see why Pepper couldn't seem to keep a straight face around Tony.

"Oh-h," Tony said, with another smile - this one decidedly flirtatious. "_Jane_. Well. We want you to come work with us."

Jane felt her face go slack with surprise. "Are you serious?"

"Yeah!" said Tony, as though this should already have been obvious. He started ticking on his fingers. "You have top-notch credentials. You come very highly recommended. I just read your dissertation - the one about the Wheeler-Fuller theory of potential instabilities in an Einstein-Rosen Bridge? Great stuff."

"You run a research and development company," Jane said, shaking her head a little. "I'm a theoretical astrophysicist."

"Yeah, but see, here's the thing," Tony said, propping his elbows on the table. "We want to R&D your theoretical astrophysics into _actual_ astrophysics."

"I'm... not sure that's actually a thing," Jane said, but she'd started to smile again.

"Who cares!" said Tony. "We'll make it a thing." He leaned forward, hovering over the table. "_Ja_-ane," he said "I have some amazing toys at my house. Wanna come over and play with my toys?"

"Tony," Pepper said in a mock-warning voice.

"I'm being good!" Tony said.

"We're prepared to give you a full research staff, any equipment you might need or want, facilities as needed, flexible schedule if you'd like to teach somewhere, full benefits - of course," said Pepper. And then she named the salary, a number that made Jane's skin prickle. Jane took another sip of wine to try to hide her shock.

Tony grinned again. "And of course Doctor Selvig has already agreed to join us."

Jane choked a little on her wine. "Really?"

"Absolutely. He's been the one asking for us to bring you back over."

And that did it. "Well," Jane said, "okay. Let's give it a try."

Tony clapped his hands and pumped his fists in the air. "Ha! I told you. Didn't I tell you?"

"You did," said Pepper, confiscating her wine glass. "Well Doctor Foster, welcome to Stark Industries." She clinked her glass with Jane's.

One huge and extremely delicious meal later, Pepper dropped Jane off at a very sleek hotel with her letter, her bouquet, and one final gift - Erik's room number. Jane raced the bellhop to her own room, paced as he set down her things, and then rushed down the hall to see Erik.

It was nearly eleven, so Jane wasn't too surprised that Erik looked bleary and disheveled when he opened the door. Once he saw her, though, he broke into a huge grin and grabbed her in a bear hug. "Oh, thank God," he said. "Thank God, thank God, thank God."

Jane returned the hug in force. "I'm so glad you're okay," she said. She looked up at him. He didn't look okay. He was unshaven, his hair was mussed, his eyes bloodshot, and his cheeks a bit red. And did she smell - what was it, vodka? Gin? She dismissed it - she'd had the better part of a bottle of wine at dinner herself; drinking with Tony was a little like running a marathon when you're used to only a morning jog. "Where were you? Nobody would tell me where you were."

Erik gave a little barking laugh. "Yes - I was, ah... classified. But now very much back in the open. Where did they put you?"

"Tromsø," Jane said. "I got you a present!" She hefted her duty-free bag and pulled out a bottle of akvavit, the Scandinavian liquor that Erik always said reminded him of home.

"Fantastic!" he said, examining the label.

"And I hear we're going to be working together," she continued.

"Now that," Erik said, "calls for a toast." He fetched two glasses from atop the side table and poured them both a measure of the akvavit. "Skal - to better days ahead," he said, and Jane believed him.

"Better days," she agreed, and they clinked and drank. They chatted for only a few more minutes before Jane had to admit that she was exhausted, and said good night. She had gone to her room and fallen asleep almost immediately.

She woke a little after two, with a dry mouth and acid in her throat. _Okay, first rule of the new job, no more drinking with Tony Stark_, she thought, as she crossed the room to get a glass of water from the bathroom tap. She drank it down, drew another, and sipped, letting her eyes adjust to the light. The fog of alcohol and fatigue seemed to clear as well, and she found that she didn't really want to go back to bed.

_Jet lag_, maybe, she thought. _I should just try to sleep - let my body adjust_.

* * *

But she hadn't gone back to sleep, and she still shivered a little - now, seven months later - when she thought of what would have happened if she had.

_It would have been three hundred and sixty-eight_, she thought.

"Are you all right?" asked Thor.

Jane found that she was gripping Thor's arm, and forced herself to relax. "Yeah," she said. "Fine. Just thinking."

"Has it been so bad?" he asked.

"Not for me," Jane said, and that was true. She liked living in Manhattan. She enjoyed the new job - Tony's promise of amazing toys had not been just a boast. The course she taught at Columbia was going well. Her first major article on what her fellow academics were calling the Foster Theory had been published a month ago, and Neil DeGrasse Tyson - _Neil DeGrasse Tyson _- had e-mailed her, to ask whether she would like to appear on StarTalk. It was even good to have Darcy in New York - irritating as she could be, she did draw Jane out of herself, made her laugh, and forced her to go to brunch on Friday mornings.

Even so, Thor's absence in the months following the attack had stung. He'd told her before he had left that he would come back - not just come back, but come back _for her_. Objectively, she understood that Thor was in a terribly difficult situation, but the sub-rational part of her brain kept nagging, her, asking what was it about her that made her so - well - _leave_able. She'd asked herself the same question three years ago, when Donald had walked out of her trailer with half his things packed in a plastic garbage bag, and had never come back for the other half.

_It's different_, Jane tried to tell herself. _Thor is different. It's not going to be like Donald_.

And now, finally, it seemed that she was right. Thor was back, walking with her, arm in arm. But he had come with a price.

_Three hundred and sixty-seven_. And the monster who had done it.

"He has sworn that he will not harm you," Thor said.

"That's not what I'm thinking about," said Jane.

They reached the cafe. Darcy and Jane walked in first while Thor caught up to Loki. "Good morning, ladies," said the hostess, who recognized the two from their weekly brunches. She blinked with surprise when she saw the two men behind them. "Four today?"

"Yeah," said Jane.

"Double date?" asked the hostess with a grin.

"_No_," said Jane, with more force than she'd intended. "Uh - business meeting," she added, when the hostess gave her an odd look. "Can we have that table?" She pointed to a booth in a deserted corner near the back, away from the few other diners.

They went over, and Jane slid in next to Darcy before Thor or Loki could sit. She registered the slight disappointment on Thor's face when she did it, but she steeled herself against it. There was no damn way she was going to let Darcy sit next to that monster. It was all she could do not to ask Thor to have his brother sit at the next table. Or maybe to wait outside. In traffic.

_Okay, get a grip_, she told herself as Loki folded himself into the booth opposite Darcy, and Thor sat opposite to Jane. _Thor was the one who stopped him in the first place_

_(but he needed four other people and a Hulk to do it)_

_and he wouldn't bring him unless it was important_

_(because coming to see me wasn't important thought we had a deal)_

_so just let him explain what's going on and we'll decide what to do_

_(like maybe push his brother under the A train?)_

_and anyway Loki hasn't done anything_

_(yet)_

"Four coffees?" said Darcy next to her, and Jane jumped. The waitress was there already standing over the table. "I just... remember you liked coffee," Darcy said to Thor with an apologetic smile.

"Ah. Yes. Coffee. I like it," agreed Thor, and the waitress gave him a confused look.

"Okay," the waitress repeated, "four... coffees..." She had trailed off, staring at Loki, who was in turn looking up at her suspiciously, as though she had just said "four strychnines."

"Yep! Thank you very much!" said Jane in a forced-cheery tone that jolted the waitress, and sent her scurrying back to the kitchen. Jane had forgotten how exhausting it could be to acclimate Asgardians to human activities. With Thor, at least, it had been fun.

The four sat in awkward silence until the waitress brought their coffees. Loki stared at his cup as though he still suspected it contained something lethal. "What is this?" he asked Thor.

"Just drink it," said Thor, who sounded completely out of patience.

Well, Jane decided, that made two of them.

"Okay," she said, "I think you should just tell us what's going on." It came out a bit more sharply than she'd meant it. Thor looked down into his coffee cup. Loki looked at Jane with an expression that wasn't quite a smile, but betrayed an interest that hadn't been there before.

"All right," Thor said, and told her.


	5. Chapter 5

The telling did not go well.

As Thor explained the predicament of the denizens of Asgard, Jane found herself growing more and more incredulous. Darcy hoovered a plate of eggs Benedict, and kept interrupting Thor to ask inane questions - what rock giants were, whether Asgardians typically considered aunts to be legal currency, and should they throw the ring into the fiery cracks of Mount Doom - but Jane didn't say a word. She pushed her French toast around her plate, unable to bring herself to eat more than a bite or two.

The worst part was that as Thor told the story, he kept looking at Loki, as though he expected his brother to chime in, to remind him of a detail, or to take over the narrative. Loki did none of these things. He seemed to have found something extremely interesting on the wall next to him, and was staring at it intently, ignoring everyone else. The effect was unsettling, and Jane found that her thoughts wandered away from Thor's story to wonder whether Loki was deliberately trying to unnerve her, or whether he was just crazy.

_It could be both_. The thought did nothing to ease her mind.

She was jolted back to the story when Thor mentioned the Tesseract. "You mean you have it? With you, right now?"

Thor gave a half smile, and hefted his briefcase.

Jane felt like her bench had been knocked from under her. Tony had briefed her on the Tesseract when she'd first started her new job - shown her pictures of it, and of the portal it had ripped into the fabric of their world to let those snake-fish-turtle monsters in. An object capable of creating an honest-to-God Einstein-Rosen bridge, and Thor had it under their table. She glanced to Loki again, but he seemed completely uninterested - he sipped at his coffee and continued to stare at the wall.

"And you," she said slowly, "want me to use it as a - a metal detector?"

Thor looked embarrassed, but that was when Loki finally spoke up.

"More of a magic detector, actually," he said in his quiet, sort of raspy voice. "But I believe you have the gist of it, yes."

"Jane," Thor said, "you do not have to say yes if you do not wish to do this."

Jane said "I want to see it."

Thor and Loki looked at each other. "It is," Loki said, " rather conspicuous."

"I'll take it into the bathroom," Jane said. Thor relinquished the briefcase without further argument.

Jane stood and walked to the ladies' room, with Darcy scurrying after her. Their waitress, who was heading back to their table with a fresh pot of coffee, gave them a strange look as they passed.

"Oh my God," Jane sighed.

"I know, right?" whispered Darcy. "I bet she thinks we're smuggling heroin or, like, illegal parrots." Darcy looked absolutely thrilled at the prospect of being considered a criminal.

They pushed into the restroom. "Guard the door, okay?" Jane said to Darcy once she had ensured the room was empty, and hoisted the case onto the sink. She ran her hands over the leather, and then over the latches that held the case shut. Holding her breath, she snapped them open, and lifted the lid.

The case was bigger on the inside, and that alone make Jane feel like the air around her had gone liquid. The bright blue cube of the Tesseract lay inside, encased in glass.

"Wow," breathed Darcy, who was standing on tiptoe by the door, craning her neck to get a glimpse of the Tesseract. "It's - like - a hypercube?"

"Yeah," said Jane. It was an object that didn't belong in three-dimensional space - and it certainly did not belong in this - what did Thor call it - _realm_.

Tony had told her this, too, on her first full day working at Stark Industries. "What we do _not_ want to make," he'd said, pointing emphatically at the Tesseract photographs he had shown her, "is one of these. I mean, it was bad when Captain Overcompensation Helmet snatched the fucker, but even before that it was being tested for weapons manufacture. That is not what Stark Industries is about."

"Anymore," teased Jane, then worried that she may have gone a little too far. But Tony just grinned.

"What can I say?" he said, "I had a change of heart. Anyway, what we _do_ want is a way to use your theory on the Einstein-Rosen bridge to develop a way to communicate with our mutual friend."

Jane had nodded.

"The Avengers Initiative," he continued, "is about all of us coming together when we're needed, right? Our friend should be able to travel back and forth with the Tesseract - we think - but right now, it's a one-way street. We need a way to talk to him, to tell him when we need his help. And he should be able to talk to us without having to travel all the way here. What do you think?"

What Jane had thought is that it sounded exactly like what she'd been trying to accomplish over the past year. Only now she'd have more resources than even S.H.I.E.L.D. could have given her - and more freedom. "I think I'm on board," she said

"Okay! Great! Fantastic!" Tony had said. "Go forth! Hire minions, do science, let me know how it goes."

Tony - and Pepper - had put their full faith in her abilities, but although she'd worked nonstop for months and had various successes along the way, she hadn't come close to tackling Tony's request. Her idea to build a modified Einstein-Rosen bridge that could transmit radio waves was, she thought, a sound one, but the actual construction of the bridge - to say nothing of ensuring that the connection went to Asgard - had stalled. So she had taken the teaching position - not just to shore up her academic credentials, but as a way to take a breather, to step back and reassess her approach. But also, it was a way to wait.

_Because we had a deal. Because he said he'd come back for me._

And when he came back, he would have to use it - the Tesseract. He would bring it with him and she could study it, to see how such a thing could be constructed, to see if she could reverse-engineer its power to build her own communications device. To create a two-way street. To let her reach Thor rather than waiting for him to come to her.

But wait was exactly what she had done - as her anxiety grew, and as the reassuring statements that Pepper and Darcy made to her began to wear thin. And now, just as she'd been toying with the idea of scrapping her plan and starting afresh, he'd arrived - but not for her. Because he _needed_ something.

She shut the case and latched it again, ignoring the disappointed little whimper that Darcy made. "Okay," she said, "let's go."

They returned to their table and sat before their fresh cups of coffee. Thor looked at Jane with a touch of entreaty in his eyes; Loki with a frank curiosity.

"So," Jane said, "you want me to take an object capable of rending a hole in the fabric of space and time, and use it to locate a magic ring that may or may not exist, and may or may not be somewhere on this planet - or in this _realm_, whatever - so that you can use it to bargain your aunt out of a polyandrous marriage agreement entered into without her knowledge, thus gaining back the power of your thunder hammer and ensuring your father retains his rule over his kingdom by keeping his oath?"

"Well, when you put it that way, it sounds so reasonable," said Loki.

Jane was taken aback. Sarcasm aside, the one who sounded reasonable at the moment was Loki. He was sitting there, with his coffee cup in his hands, giving her a self-deprecating smile that was - well, it was sort of charming.

_Three hundred and sixty seven_, she thought, but this time, it didn't work. It was too many people, too abstract, something she'd seen on a computer screen, like an action movie where the only people who'd been killed were faceless extras who had died offscreen. How could someone sitting calmly with her, having a cup of coffee, have killed that many people - _real _people?

But then she remembered standing there, in her hotel bathroom with her glass of water, telling herself to just go back to sleep.

_It would have been three hundred and sixty eight._

Jane's rage returned to her, hard and smooth, and she welcomed it like a friend. She gave Loki what she hoped was her coldest look, and turned back to Thor.

"Okay," she said, "I'll do it."

Thor broke into a relieved smile. "I cannot begin to thank y-"

"On one condition," Jane interrupted. "No - two conditions. First, I get to perform any additional tests on the Tesseract that I see fit."

Thor looked at Loki, which made Jane seethe. She wanted to shake him by the shoulders and tell him_ you should have him locked up - not be looking at him like he's the one telling you what to do_.

"I have no objection to that," said Loki, still giving her his I'm-so-reasonable smile.

"Thor," Jane said, "is that all right with you?"

"Oh - yes, of course," Thor said.

"Okay, second condition is that I don't have to talk to him." Jane pointed at Loki.

"That might present some difficulties," Loki said.

"He's _talking_ to me," Jane warned Thor.

"Loki has made a study of magic for many years," Thor said in a conciliatory tone, "and has an understanding of what must be sought to locate this ring - we need your knowledge as well as his in turning the Tesseract to that purpose. I would not have brought him here if there was any choice in the matter."

Jane considered this. She could refuse, and she was tempted to do so. But her thoughts kept returning to that little blue cube under the table. The leap forward in all her efforts. The two-way street. The end to all her waiting.

"Darcy," she said, "do you still have your taser?"

"Uh," Darcy said, "It's kind of illegal to have a taser in New York?"

"Yeah, but do you have it?"

"Well _duh_," Darcy said, patting her handbag.

"Good," Jane said. "Then we have a deal. I help you, and if _he_-" she pointed to Loki again- "puts a toe out of line, Darcy tases him, I call Tony, and Tony calls Bruce."

"Oh, you know Bruce," Thor said, brightening. Loki's smile vanished, and his face went slightly gray.

"Yep," Jane said, smiling a little for what felt like the first time that day. She'd actually only met Bruce once, at the Stark Industries holiday party. She'd found him to be sweet and self-effacing, especially for someone who could turn into a huge green monster. She wasn't even sure if Bruce was even in the country at the moment, but the effect that mentioning his name had on Loki was good enough for now.

"Excellent," Thor said. "So, what do we do now?" He looked from Jane to Loki, and back again. Loki looked back at his wall, and took an ostentatious slurp from his cup.

Jane downed the last of her coffee. "Now," she said, "we get to work."

* * *

Tony had offered Jane space in Stark Tower, but after considering the amount and size of the equipment she would need, they both had agreed that midtown Manhattan would be too inconvenient for deliveries and setup. So Tony had given her a spare warehouse in Jersey City to use as her lab. It was very convenient - a short drive from the apartment he'd found for her in Manhattan, and a reverse commute so that she was spared the worst of the snarl that was New York traffic.

The lab had been closed to day-to-day workers since she'd shut down her experiment to teach two months ago, but there was still security to think of. This is what Jane considered as she took the group to the parking garage where she kept her Mini Cooper - another present from Tony and Pepper. She and Darcy would be able to get in without a problem, as would Thor, if he had his Donald Blake ID (and God, wasn't _that_ bizarre, her new boyf - well, her _something_ - using her ex's identity). But Loki didn't have any ID that she knew of. And would the Stark Industries security be on the lookout for him?

_Maybe not - he's supposed to be safe and sound on Asgard, right? Not being smuggled into an integral Stark Industries lab by Tony's head astrophysicist_. This made her feel guilty, but only for a moment. She'd made her decision, and it was time to work.

When they reached her car, she felt a little dismayed. It was new and sleek and clean, but it was also tiny, designed more for two people than for four. _Well, they'll just have to deal_, she thought, and opened the door.

"What-" started Loki, but Thor interrupted him.

"Ground transportation," he said. "Get in."

"Doesn't it fly?" Loki asked. He looked extremely put out.

"Both of you in the back, please," Jane said, and both men acquiesced, albeit with some difficulty. Jane felt bad for Thor, but again, she wasn't about to force Darcy to sit next to Loki. In fact, it was a little funny to watch them try to arrange themselves in the tiny backseat.

"Okay, seatbelts," she said as she and Darcy settled into the front seats.

Driving through Manhattan was a harrowing experience at any time of day, but Jane had enough experience now that she was able to handle the aggressive traffic adroitly. Glancing in the rear view mirror, she saw Thor looking uncomfortable, and Loki looking out the windows with curiosity, craning his neck to see the buildings like a tourist.

When they arrived in Jersey City, Jane drove through the security gate pulled into the parking lot by the lab. "Okay," Jane said, before they got out, "to get in, you need to at least have a photo ID so I can sign you in as a guest. The one we gave you Thor, remember? And there are cameras pretty much everywhere, just so you know."

"I don't think that will be a problem," said Loki.

"I do not have the card you gave me," Thor said.

"Do you have one?" Loki asked Jane. "May I see it?"

Jane hesitated a moment, but then dug her wallet out of her jeans pocket and handed her driver's license to Loki. He turned it over in his hands, running his fingers along the card. After a minute of this, he handed it back to Jane, and made a few passes in front of him with his hands. "Name?" he asked Thor.

"Uh - Donald Blake," Jane answered for him, and a card appeared in Loki's hand. He handed it to Thor, then repeated the movements for his own card. Jane reached out, and Thor let her take his card. It was a perfect New York state driver's license, watermarks and all, and even better than the New York license that Erik and Jane had cobbled together for Thor.

"Well," Jane said, a little thrown. "I guess that works. Let's go."

They entered the small lobby of the lab, and Jane went straight to the security desk. Rhetta Parks was on duty, and she grinned broadly at Jane over her magazine when she saw the group enter. "Hi Doctor Foster," she said. "Been a while since I seen you."

"Yeah," Jane said, "pretty busy teaching. How's it been?"

"Real quiet; it's pretty boring without everyone running around. When are you all coming back?"

"Maybe after the semester." _Maybe sooner, if everything goes well today_. "I brought some guests with me, could you sign them in?"

"Sure," Rhetta said. "Photo IDs, please. Oh - Darcy! How are you?"

"And this is Doctor Donald Blake," Jane said, gesturing to Thor, "and - uh-"

"Doctor Logan Blake," Loki finished, handing Rhetta his ID. "How do you do?"

"Mmhm," Rhetta said, barely registering the greeting. Jane was thrown - Rhetta was usually friendly and gregarious, and would certainly ask two people who showed up with the same last name whether they were related. But Rhetta's eyes seemed to slide off of Loki as though she hadn't really seen him at all. Jane glanced at Loki, who gave her a small, sly smile, as if to say "see?"

Somehow the thought that Loki could bypass security so easily did not make Jane feel very relieved, but she swallowed down her unease, and led the group into the laboratory proper.

The space was vast and silent, all concrete floors and the steel of machines. Jane turned on the lights, and Loki walked ahead of her, looking up at the equipment. Thor and Darcy both hung back, hovering around the entrance.

"Well," Jane said to Thor, "may I?" She held out her hand, and Thor extended the briefcase to her.

"I have told Loki that he is not to touch it without permission, so-" Thor started, and Jane nodded.

"Yeah," she said, "he snatches it, and you're up, Darce."

Darcy hefted her taser. "So on it," she said with a grin, but she was the only one smiling.

"Jane," Thor said, "I'm - I'm sorry."

Jane nodded, thinking that she ought to say something to ease his mind, but she couldn't find the words. So she turned without saying anything, and walked to Loki.

Loki was standing before a large machine, a flat cylinder mounted on two massive stands, with a space in its center that was made to cradle a mid-sized cube. As she approached, he reached out and ran one finger along the machine's side. "This one," he said, without looking at Jane.

"Yeah," Jane said. "Erik gave me that."

"I know," Loki said. "I gave it to him."

_Monster_, Jane thought, but she didn't say it. She set the case down on a nearby desk.

"Okay," Jane said, "tell me what we're doing."

* * *

Thor took another bite of brown sugar Pop-Tart and chewed without tasting it. The texture was like thick mortar in his mouth. He swallowed.

Loki and Jane were sitting by the machine, lit blue by the Tesseract that had been fitted into it. They were speaking intently, Jane nodding, and Loki gesturing with his hands.

Everything had gone wrong, Thor decided, from the moment he'd opened his mouth. He should have said something - anything - to Jane to make her feel that he hadn't come only for himself, or for his people.

_but it would have been a lie_

But even a lie would be better than - well - _this_. He could have handled it if Jane had gotten angry, if she had shouted, called him names, railed at his selfishness. It was her disappointment, and her obdurate attempts to hide it, that galled him. He took another bite of Pop-Tart. It didn't help.

Darcy sat next to him, munching on a bag of crunchy orange somethings, her lighting gun balanced on her lap. Thor had retrieved the snacks from the man-sized snack box that stood in the corner - Darcy had whooped and cheered when he had prized its glass front off, so that Darcy could choose a snack at will. He hated himself for thinking it, but Darcy's reaction to the snacks had been the one he had wanted to see from Jane just for coming. But he knew that he didn't deserve it.

If I could just tell her, he thought. He knew all the words he wanted to say to Jane. He just didn't know what order they should go in.

_Loki would know_.

Loki, it seemed, did know - although Jane had started their conversation with her arms crossed, keeping her distance, she was now completely absorbed in whatever Loki was saying. Thor was close enough to hear snatches of their conversation, but they were using words that he hadn't ever heard before.

Thor wished, with all his being, that he had his hammer with him. WIth that, he was sure, he would know exactly what to do. But without it, he felt powerless, unmoored. All he could do was sit here, and wait.

"So," Darcy said, surprising him and making him jump a little. "That's your brother."

"Yes," Thor said.

Darcy considered this. "He's kind of a dick."

"Well," Thor said, "he's adopted."

"Oh," Darcy said. She munched another handful of orange things.

"Do you have a brother?" asked Thor.

"Nah," Darcy said. "Sister. Last time I saw her, I kind of accidentally slept with her boyfriend. But if anyone else is, like, mean to her? They're on my shit list for life." She paused, chewing. "Uh, when I said your brother was a dick-"

"It is all right, Darcy," Thor said.

"You shouldn't be worried," Darcy said. "I mean, they're having their super genius club over there or something? But the way she talks about you?" Darcy whistled, a thin high sound in the cavernous space of the lab. "Let's just say there are some serious lady boners up in that piece."

"Uh," Thor said, "thank you?"

Darcy grinned. Her teeth had orange bits stuck between them. "No problem. Want another Pop-Tart?"

Thor did.

* * *

"So - you're saying this ring isn't made of gold, but its antimatter equivalent?" Jane said. Her head was already spinning with the possibility of something solid, made of antimatter - antimatter composed of _full atoms_, rather than of particles - here on earth.

"No - ah-" Loki said, and ran a hand through his hair. Once they had gotten into the technicalities of the conversation, it seemed, their terms for certain things did not match up, and Loki was struggling to take the conversation back down to its basics. "It is both the - ah - you called it an element?"

"Yes, gold is an element, it's made up of one single type of atom," Jane said, wishing he'd get to the point.

"The ring is made of both gold and not-gold - ah - anti-gold."

"Both? But-" Jane said, "that would be unstable; it would cause annihilation of both elements and it would give off extreme amounts of gamma radiation-"

"Yes!" Loki interjected. "Yes, precisely!"

"But the ring couldn't exist," Jane said. "Its mass would be completely converted into energy."

"Well, yes," Loki said. "And when the energy released from the - ah - annihilation? When it interacts with itself-"

"You're saying it converts back into mass?"

"It's not a coincidence that the object was made into a ring - it's a constant cycle. Mass to energy, energy to mass."

"But it's physically impossible to generate the kind of energy it would take to convert gamma rays back into mass through a cyclical pair production process-"

Loki turned his hands up in a plaintive gesture. "All I know is what I have read. If the ring does not exist, our errand is futile. If it does-"

"Then it's a perpetual energy generator," finished Jane. She stared at the floor, letting the thought sink in. "Okay, yeah," she said, "we are _so_ finding this thing. I have a portable gamma ray spectrometer but we can't just go outside and start waving it around, hoping we'll see a spike. So that's where the Tesseract comes in?"

"I think so," said Loki. "The Tesseract can be induced to emit - ah - gamma rays."

"Wait," said Jane, "you're saying that thing's radioactive too?" She gestured to the Tesseract, nestled in place in the machine. They had it out on the street - had brought it into a restaurant, for God's sake. She had even opened the case - and now it was out of its glass, tucked into the machine beside them, giving off its strange blue glow.

"In its present state it is not toxic to humans," Loki said. When Jane did not relax, he added "as Doctor Selvig informed me."

Jane considered this, then stood and walked back to one of her equipment closets, fetching her portable geiger counter. She returned, fiddling with it, and held the wand out to the Tesseract. Sure enough, the counter barely clicked - there was no excessive radiation coming from the object that she could detect.

"You seem worried about it," Loki said. "What does it do to you?"

"It's called radiation poisoning," Jane replied. "It breaks down your cellular structure. It's what happened to Bruce to make him what he is, but he's an exception. Mostly people just fall apart and die."

"Ah," said Loki. "That sounds unpleasant."

_About as unpleasant as having a building fall on you, or getting eaten by a giant turtle-fish-snake? _Jane had to struggle to keep from saying it aloud.

"But as I was saying, the Tesseract can emit gamma rays powerful enough to interact with the ring's energy. If they interact, and we can track the location of the conversion of energy to mass-"

"Then we'll have the ring's location," Jane finished.

"But if the energy is as toxic to humans as you say-" Loki started.

"Since when are you worried about killing humans?" Jane asked.

"Oh, I'm not," Loki said, "but since you seem to be, I'm willing to make the concession."

"Gee, how sweet of you," Jane deadpanned. "Of course it could create an army of Hulks instead, and if that happens I'd be happy to let them know who'd caused it."

Loki narrowed his eyes at her, and Jane grinned. "Fortunately for us," she continued, "to recreate the production of mass on a particle level instead of on an atomic level, we can use gamma rays that are too weak to cause radiation poisoning. So basically a very low-level gamma ray blast that we can treat as a kind of sonar."

Loki considered this. "It does sound plausible," he said.

"Then," Jane said, "we can give it a shot."

"Would the ring be toxic to humans as well, then?" Loki asked.

"Gamma rays powerful enough to produce cyclic pair production? Yeah, most likely," Jane replied.

"If that is the case, why would you be interested in finding it?"

Jane shrugged. "Humans have looked for perpetual motion machines for... centuries. Millenia, even. Something like that could be a breakthrough in clean energy production. And there are safe ways to study objects that emit gamma radiation - we're pretty far from our Demon Core days. Uh-" she stuttered upon seeing Loki's puzzled look. "Just a plutonium sphere that caused some radiation accidents."

"Like the one that made that monster?"

It took Jane a moment to realize that Loki was referring to Bruce. "Yeah, sort of," she said, "but like I said, Bruce is the exception."

"Well," Loki said, "it doesn't sound as though you're very far away from those sorts of accidents at all."

_Well fuck you too, smugsy mc smugpants_, Jane thought, and considered reminding him that Bruce was just a phone call away. In the end, she contented herself with picturing her pushing him in front of the A train again, a mental image that was immensely satisfying.

Jane decided against any further conversation and stood, considering the machine before her. From what little Erik had been able to tell her after he - well _after_, the machine was based on part of the P.E.G.A.S.U.S. Project, a division of S.H.I.E.L.D. that had been studying the Tesseract before - well, _before_.

Jane forced herself to stop thinking in abstracts. Before Loki came, killed the agents, taken the Tesseract and Erik. The machine - she didn't know what it was called, or even if it was called anything - had been left behind, destroyed when the lab collapsed in on itself. But when Erik said that he needed another machine, Loki had retrieved not only the components for a new machine, but people who could help Erik build it. The new machine was a patch job, much of it likely constructed by Erik himself. She had no doubt the machine would still work, but it was pretty raggedy-looking.

A snarl of wire extruded from the machine's inner workings. Jane knelt before the tangle, puffed a lock of hair out of her face, and looked back at Loki. "So," she said, "how much of this is him, and how much is you?"

"Mostly him," Loki said. "I don't know very much about Midgardian machines."

Jane considered this. "But you were there. With him. Like, in him."

Loki didn't respond.

"You're not going to take over my brain too, are you?" Jane asked.

"Do you want me to?" Loki said.

"Uh, _no_."

"Oh. Well, I can't do that any more," said Loki. "I just didn't want you to be disappointed."

_Right_, Jane thought, and turned back to the machine. After some scrounging, she was able to find the cable she was after, and pulled it free of the tangle.

"Okay," Jane said over her shoulder, "see that computer over there - on the roller desk? Could you wheel it over here?"

Loki didn't move, but stared back at her as though she'd just asked him to scrub out the restrooms with his toothbrush.

_Well fine_, Jane thought,_ if you want to do this the hard way, let's go_. She stood, bent over Loki and snapped her fingers in his face. "Listen up, crazy," she said, "you want my help, you have to work. Since Darcy's on taser duty, and Thor's on kicking-your-ass duty, I'm appointing you lab assistant as of immediately. I don't care if you're, like, unused to manual labor, or taking orders because you're some kind of prince, or what. This is my lab, and when we're in my lab, I am the _empress_. I make the rules. Get the computer and wheel it over here, _now_."

Loki blinked up at her. "What's a computer?" he asked.

* * *

Al was having a very good time.

The minute he stepped out of his building, the entire world seemed to snap into place. Into its proper place that is - revolving around him.

He'd left Mike - that puss could take care of himself, as far as Al was concerned - and gone out, basking in the cool spring air.

It was the first ATM he passed that gave a beep, then a grating whirr, and started spitting out twenties. Al stopped and stared at it, watching the bills flutter to the ground. Then he grabbed as many bills as he could stuff in his pockets.

_Holy shit, this is so my day_, he thought. But then the next ATM did the same thing. And the next. Al had to snatch a plastic baggie from a nearby trash can just to hold all that was flowing out of the machines.

Someone came up beside him at the third ATM, and Al backhanded him without looking. The crash sounded faint and muffled in his ears. When he looked back up, Al saw that he had attracted something of a crowd around him. The people watching hung back, looking nervously first at him, and then at the prone body of the young man he'd swatted - who had landed by a dumpster several feet away. The dumpster appeared to have been dented by the man's body.

_Well whatever, that's what you get when you try to gank my cash_. Al stuffed more bills into his bag. He walked on, and the crowd followed him, muttering to itself in hushed tones that sounded - well they sounded a little bit like fear.

It didn't take long for Al to decide that this was entirely reasonable. _Let one of them just come near me, just one. I'll knock his nose so far down he'll be able to smell his own shit before he takes a dump. _He passed another ATM, and it began to spit cash.

But by then, he had attracted some unwanted attention. A blue-uniformed NYPD officer pushed his way through the throng, stopping when he saw Al still stuffing bills into his bag.

"All right," the cop said, "just hold it." He sounded tired and bored. He reached for his radio.

It was the boredom that sparked Al's rage. Who the fuck was this piddling piece of shit cop to see him and act bored? Al would show him bored. Al was the motherfucking Hulk, wasn't he?

_No, you're not the Hulk. The Hulk is for pussies. You're a motherfucking dragon._

And as soon as he thought it, that's just what Al became.

He felt it, the muscle covered in scales bursting from his body, becoming his body. He felt himself lift, felt himself grow. His mouth widened to a ravening maw of razor teeth. He heard the crowd start to scream, saw them start to push each other out of the way, saw how they trampled each other in their panic. It was just how it should be. It was all for him.

The look of complete shock and horror on the cop's face was the most satisfying thing Al had ever seen. To celebrate, Al bit the cop's head off.

It was delicious.


	6. Chapter 6

After about an hour's worth of work, Jane decided that Loki was the best-worst lab assistant she'd ever had. He required a lot of extra explanations, and he started out performing the tasks she set to him with the aggrieved air of a Saint Sebastian being led to the archery range. Still, what Loki lacked in enthusiasm, he made up in - well, she could only call it magic.

It was little things at first. When Loki had wheeled over the computer that hooked to the machine, Jane had realized that the computer's power cord was too short to reach the wall outlet. She'd been trying to explain what an extension cord was and where to find one, when Loki had taken the power cord in his hands and had just _extended_ it.

"Will that do?" he asked, looking bored.

"Uh - yeah," Jane replied, and they had gotten back to work.

As they continued, though, Jane began to realize that Loki's utility extended beyond just manipulating physical objects. He could create almost anything - including software programs - provided she could clearly explain to him what she needed, and what it should do. The work went fast, and it was starting to get kind of fun. Loki slowly stopped acting like a martyr and began to seem interested in the way the computer interacted with the machine, and the changes Jane was trying to make to effect their planned gamma ray blast. When he started proposing his own suggestions about how to make the process easier, the work went faster still.

After another hour and a half Jane finally had the machine in the shape she wanted it, and started typing the program into the computer that would create the sonar-style images, using a basic map and working from there. Loki stood and wandered a bit, looking up at the ceiling from time to time, but not touching anything. Jane glanced over at him, but he didn't seem to be disturbing her equipment, so she decided to leave him alone. After a few minutes, he sat back down behind Jane and watched over her shoulder.

Jane looked to the other side to see Thor and Darcy snacking in some chairs by the near wall. "Hey Darce," she said, "any Pop-Tarts left?" Her stomach was growling; she was beginning to regret not eating her French toast.

"Blueberry and strawberry," Darcy.

"Strawberry," Jane said, and turned back to the computer.

A minute later, she felt a hand on her shoulder, but when she turned it wasn't Darcy, it was Thor.

"Here," he said, handing her the Pop-Tart packet. His smile was tentative.

"Thanks," said Jane, taking it.

"Do you need anything else?" Thor asked.

"Nope - we're all set," Jane said. When Thor didn't move, she said "really - things are going good. We're fine."

"All right," Thor said, and went back to his chair near Darcy.

Jane tore the wrapper with her teeth, pushed up a Pop-Tart with her thumb and started munching, but then heard a cough behind her.

"Oh, sorry," she said, turning to Loki. "Did you want one too?" She held the second Pop-Tart out.

Loki gave the snack a frown. "No, thank you."

"Mm," Jane said. She stuffed another bite of Pop-Tart in her mouth, and turned back to the computer.

"I just wanted to say," said Loki, "that I think it's rather shabby."

"Hm?" Jane looked up at the machine. "Well it's patchy, but-"

"No, I mean him not coming to see you until now," Loki said.

Jane gasped. "Oh my God - Loki - guess what?"

"Ex... cuse me?" Loki said.

Jane turned to Loki. "You tried killing your own brother with a giant fire laser robot. So you don't get to tell me that anything he's _ever_ done is shabby."

"Oh," Loki said. "That." He looked to a far corner. "Well," he finally said, "it didn't work."

"Yeah, I noticed," Jane said. "And honestly, I wonder why I'm even letting you help me on this - you seem to fail at pretty much everything you do."

She said this last with a little twinge of fear in her stomach, wondering whether Loki would get angry with her and try something. But he just shrugged.

"That's fair," he said. "If you really want to be fair, however, Thor did throw me into an abyss."

"Yeah, I heard something different, actually," Jane said.

"From whom?"

"Thor told Tony. Tony told me."

"Secondhand then," Loki said. "Do you believe everything you hear?"

"Look, I get it," Jane said. "I mean, yeah, it's cute? But I get where you're trying to go, and it's just not gonna work."

"I think you misunderstand," Loki said.

"Nope," Jane said. "You're going to get all down on Thor for not keeping his promise to see me, and I'm going to get all mistrustful of him and start trusting you instead, and you're going to pull some bullshit mastermind plan that's way too complicated for its own good to try to get the upper hand, and Thor's just going to kick your ass and drag you back to Asgard again. I get it. So let's just skip the aggravation and the inevitable injuries, okay?"

"No," Loki said. "I mean that I am offering to help you."

"What?" said Jane.

"You said that you wanted to perform more tests on the Tesseract, yes? It is a useful object, and not just for tracking radiation. It has so many interesting properties. I'm not surprised you want to learn about it." He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his thighs and looking at Jane with a bemused expression. "I have met those who wish to use the Tesseract to destroy others. I don't think that is your purpose. To acquire power? No. You lack that sort of ambition. To acquire knowledge, then. That, I think, is the hunger you wish to satisfy. So the question remains - knowledge of what?"

Jane stared at Loki, feeling disquiet stir within her.

"A mortal woman meets a man who falls from the sky, someone who comes from another realm. And he leaves, to take care of some - mm - family business. And he is prevented from returning. Some time passes, and he does return - but not for her. He doesn't even see her before he has to leave once again. Even though he-" and here Loki smirked- "_promised_."

Jane stiffened at the jibe. It was careless of her, letting Loki know what Thor had promised. She would have to watch the words she used in front of him.

"I can only imagine how disappointing this must be for you. But now you have a chance - to use the Tesseract to find a way to reach him, instead of waiting for him to reach you. Do I have it right?"

Jane still didn't answer, which was an answer in itself.

"I can help," Loki concluded, "if you let me."

"Um, no offense," Jane started, then changed her mind. "Actually, yes, please feel free to get extremely offended at what I'm about to say, but you don't seem the type to help anyone unless there was something in it for you."

"Shouldn't my brother's happiness be enough?" Loki said, but his mouth was twitching into another smirk.

"Giant. Fire. Laser. Robot," Jane said. "So, no."

"Well, perhaps it will not be quite so long this time," Loki said with another shrug. "A few weeks, perhaps, some months at the most? I'll try to remind him that you're waiting, but he rarely listens to what I have to say."

"Will you shut up for two seconds?" Jane snapped. Her voice rose to a shout, alerting Thor and Darcy. Both stood, Darcy snatching up her taser, Thor looking furious. "Wait," Jane said to them, "everything's okay, calm down." Both slowly sat, though Darcy still clutched the taser with both hands. Loki was still looking at her, not quite smiling, but with his eyebrows half raised. Jane cursed herself for losing her temper in front of him, for letting him know he'd gotten to her, but she couldn't take it back now.

"Just tell me," Jane said, "what's in it for you to help me?"

"Every minute I spend here," Loki replied, "is a minute when I'm not shut in a cage."

Jane considered this. "So they did lock you up," she said. "Well, it's more than you deserve."

"What I do or don't deserve is not the point," said Loki. "What do _you_ deserve, Jane Foster?"

"I deserve some quiet while I figure out this program," said Jane, and she turned back to her computer, taking a large and self-righteous bite of her second Pop-Tart while she did. She wrote three lines of code, and then erased four. She stared at the cursor flickering on the screen.

"Okay, listen, " Jane said, not turning around. "If this gamma burst works? We'll talk. Deal?"

She was greeted with only silence, so she turned. Loki was looking at her, and when their eyes locked, he gave a short nod.

"It's for you to say. And there won't be much of a point if this doesn't work," Loki said.

_What the hell does he mean by that_? Jane wondered, but by then she was too sick of Loki's dramatics to ask. She turned back to her computer and started typing.

* * *

Thor was considering whether he wanted another Pop-Tart enough to endure a blueberry flavored one when Jane said "okay, we're ready."

Thor and Darcy looked at each other, then, stood, Darcy batting the orange powder off of her fingers and onto her blue trousers. They stood behind Jane at the computer, and Thor peered at the map on the screen.

"So," Jane said, her voice sounding a little strained in Thor's ears, "this is basically how it goes. We emit a stream of gamma rays from the tesseract, just high enough in energy that when they encounter a more powerful ray, they'll interact with it and produce a microscopic particle of mass. Since the gamma radiation from the ring will interrupt the ray coming from the cube, we'll be able to see the blip on the map - for a huge distance, gamma rays travel incredibly fast. And as long as your mods can keep the rays' curvature close to the surface of the earth-" she cut off, looking at Loki, who jerked his chin in her direction, but said nothing. "Well," Jane said, "we'll be able to see it, as long as the ring's relatively close to sea level. If not we might want to go up to a higher elevation and try again."

She squared her shoulders. "Okay, we only need about a second's worth of gamma burst to circumnavigate the planet - if it works." Her hand hovered over the computer's keyboard, hesitating.

"I am sure it will work," Thor said, hoping that he sounded more certain than he felt. He was confident in Jane's abilities, but all the strange bulky metal and snaking wires in the space bewildered him. Jane looked up at him and gave him a grateful smile that warmed him to his core, assuaging his uncertainty. He reached out a hand and tentatively placed it on Jane's shoulder. She was warm, and he felt her steady herself under his palm, but the thrum of her pulse was still evident under the surface. He didn't take his hand away, and she didn't seem to mind.

Thor fought the impulse to glance behind him at Loki, and lost. Loki was not looking at the computer screen as Jane and Darcy were, but at the Tesseract nestled in the machine. He was still, and Thor did not think that he would be foolish enough to try to take the Tesseract now, but Thor determined to keep an eye on him, just in case.

"Okay," Jane repeated. She tensed, taking in a breath. "Now." She pressed a key on the machine before her, and then almost as soon as she'd done so, pressed it again. She kept still, holding her breath, as she stared at the screen.

The squiggling lines on the screen meant nothing to Thor - he was unfamiliar with the geography of Midgard, save that he was in the "America" his friend Steve was named after, and that the large cluster of buildings nearby, where he had fought the chitauri, and where so many mortals seemed to live on top of one another was called "New York." But the smattering of bright dots that appeared on the screen - as well as Jane's little start of surprise under his hand - did seem to mean something.

"What is it?" he asked, not taking his hand away.

"It's_ here_," Jane breathed.

Thor glanced back at Loki again, in time to see Loki close his eyes and let out a breath in what seemed like relief. Jane let out her breath at the same time, and Thor had the unnerving sensation that his hand was on his brother's shoulder - feeling Jane's body depress and watching his brother's do the same gave the unnerving sensation that for just one moment, the two occupied the same space, had contained the same air within them.

"It - is in this realm?" Thor asked, trying to chase the image from his mind by speaking aloud.

"No, I mean it's _here_," Jane said, jerking her head up. "It's in Manhattan."

"Oh my _God_," Darcy said, trying to shove Thor aside. Thor, in his shock, let himself be shoved away from Jane, losing his brief contact with her. His palm felt too cold when it came away.

"See, look," Jane said, enlarging the map and pointing to it. "There are a lot of places that use radiation - Sloan Kittering and Mount Sinai do cancer treatments, and here's the Indian Point nuclear power plant. But they don't show up on the map because they have radiation containment - the gamma rays inside can't get out, and our gamma rays can't get in. And there are a few others, most likely naturally occurring gamma rays, but they're faint. But this-" she said, pointing to a larger dot- "this is _huge_. I don't see anything comparable anywhere else. Definitely radioactive, and definitely _not _properly contained." She shook her head. "I can't believe this is right in the middle of Manhattan."

"What about that one?" asked Darcy, pointing to another dot in the corner of the screen that looked more like a streak.

"That - I don't know," Jane considered. "It's in Brooklyn. It's smaller but it almost looks like it's moving. I mean, we could try to track it, but by the time we got there - and without the ability to transport the machine-"

"The other is stable?" Loki asked.

"Uh-" Jane said. "Looks like it."

"Then we should try it first, don't you think?" Loki was still looking at the Tesseract and not at them.

"Yes," Jane said, and she sounded adamant to Thor. "The stable mark is the largest, and it's the most likely to be the ring based on the amount of gamma radiation at the site. Still," she said, in a more hesitant voice, "the one that's moving is a pretty massive gamma signature - definitely toxic."

"Then you ought to stay away from it unless we need to go near it," said Loki in a flat, dispassionate tone.

"Yeah," said Jane, her voice brisk. "We should just go." She turned and gave Loki a hard look. "Let's get this over with."

It was short work for Thor to pluck the Tesseract out of the machine and put it in its case while Jane marked the address and shut her system down. She went into a corner of the lab and fetched a small carrying case before signalling that she was ready to go. The four of them trooped out of the lab and into Jane's transport without much further comment.

The drive back into New York was tedious, especially since Thor and Loki were once again forced to sit in the back. Loki stayed silent, staring out the window, while Thor looked at the other vehicles around, wondering that many were so big while Jane's was so small. Then again, Jane was small herself - perhaps she didn't need so much room as the other mortals did.

Once they were back in Manhattan, Jane steered them into a parking garage, and then led them to the street, stopping before a blank and nondescript building.

"This one," she said, after checking and re-checking her map. She dashed up the steps to the door, then turned back, frowning.

"Looks like there's a keycard lock, should I ring the bell?" she said.

"What's a-" Thor started, but Loki held his hand out, then strode up the steps to join Jane. Darcy and Thor followed, and watched as Loki examined the flat panel fixed to the wall beside the door. After a few minutes of consideration, he placed his palm flat against the panel, and the door gave a slight buzzing sound. Jane jerked the door open.

"Wait," Loki said to Jane. Jane looked at Loki, her brows furrowed, then her face relaxed. She nodded.

"Right," she said, letting Loki take the door. She crouched, opening the case she'd brought with her. Thor began to ascend the stairs himself, eyeing the strange machine that Jane had pulled from the case. It was a black box with a panel in the front, with a handle protruding from the top. Jane fiddled with the box for a moment, then stood still, examining its panel.

"There's a little bit," Jane said, "more than you'd normally see in the open, but I'm not registering enough radiation for there to be toxicity - thank goodness."

"Does that mean the radiation has been contained?" asked Loki.

"That's the thing about gamma radiation," responded Jane, "it can't be easily contained, not without an extremely thick barrier made of something dense - lead, or steel, or concrete. And if the radiation was contained, we wouldn't be reading anything out here. Something must have happened - but I'm not sure what." She frowned at the front of the building.

Thor listened, as baffled as he would have been if the two had started speaking in their own invented language. He had to take control of this situation, he realized. Loki and Jane's knowledge of the Tesseract and the ring was beyond his, true, but he had allowed Loki too much lead already. If he didn't do something, it would be all the more easy for Loki to turn on Jane - if that's what he had in mind. Even if he did not have his hammer with him, he had to exert control.

Thor squared himself, marching up the stairs and placing himself between his brother and his - well, his _something_, anyway.

"We'll go in ourselves," Thor said to Loki. "If the ring can be removed safely, we will do so. If not-" he paused at this. If he could not take the ring out of its containment without endangering Jane and Darcy, not to mention the large number of passerby, what should he do? He would not leave Loki alone with the ring any more than he would send Loki alone to speak with Jane. "If not," he said, slower now, "we will both return and determine what to do next."

"We don't have time to dither," said Loki - and was his jaw clenched when he said it? Thor thought it was. Thor forced himself to take a deep, calming breath before turning to face his brother.

"I will decide what we do and do not have time for," Thor said. Loki rolled his eyes at this, but didn't argue further. Good - Loki looked like a petulant child, while Thor looked to be in command.

Jane gave Thor a small smile. "Take this," she said, handing him the box. "You can tell the gamma radiation in a given area by looking at the readout. It's in MeVs, so-" she stopped, looking up, and then grinned a little wider. "Okay, sorry. If the line goes up to the top, like that, you know there's a lot of radiation, and you're near what you're looking for. Got it?"

Thor returned the smile. "Got it," he said. He thought that perhaps he was getting better at these odd Midgardian colloquialisms, though he still had to ask someone what it meant to be a flying monkey. He considered asking Jane then, but decided it wasn't the proper time.

Loki gave a rather theatrical cough then, and Thor sighed. Jane kept her smile, which was encouraging. "Okay," she said, "go. But come back, okay?"

Thor kissed Jane's hand. "Of course," he said, then turned to follow his brother into the building.

It was difficult, juggling the small handled box and the case with the Tesseract, so when Loki held out one hand, Thor was glad to relinquish Jane's box to Loki. Loki examined the small panel, and his mouth twisted. "Still the same," Loki said.

They searched the upper stories of the building quickly, moving up the stairs and passing from room to room, Loki palming the flat locking mechanisms on the walls until the doors opened. Most rooms contained filing cabinets, rows of metal boxes filled with papers, signifying nothing. They passed through to the top, but there was no change on the box panel.

"Below, then," was all Loki had to say, and they descended without another word.

They passed through another room of metal boxes - different kinds, these man-sized and narrow with a bench before them, sinks and faucets gleaming under to-bright lights. It was not until they reached the very bottom that they saw any signs of life. Loki palmed a door open, then held up his hand for Thor to stop. Through the open door, Thor could hear voices - womens' voices - coming from inside.

"So I was thinking," one of them was saying, "do you want to go out? I mean, like, tonight. Maybe."

There wasn't another sound for a long moment, until another voice said "oh - nah. Sorry but I have a thing tonight."

"Yeah," a third voice said, "me too."

"Oh," the first voice said. "That's okay."

Another silence that went on for even longer. Thor waited, trying not to grit his teeth, when Loki made a sudden movement, gesturing to Jane's small box. Sure enough, the line had risen to the middle of its screen - a sign that these "rays" were present in this underground space. Loki tensed, then turned his hand in a beckoning gesture. When Thor came near, Loki said "stay close."

Thor knew that Loki had a way of - well, not turning invisible exactly, but sidling along mortals' peripheral vision so that he wouldn't be noticed. Thor had seen him do this once, when Thor had been captured by Agent Coulson's men after attempting to retrieve Mjolnir from their grasp. The S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents had gone about their business while Loki moved among them, never seeming to notice the intruder.

Now, Loki entered the small room with the three women in it, stepping quietly and skirting the wall. Thor followed as closely as he could, doing his best not to bang his Tesseract case. As exposed as he felt in the room, and - for all he could discern, within full sight of the people in it - none of the women seemed to look directly at either of them at all. There was only one bad moment, when they passed the shortest woman, with the curly hair, who was sitting in a chair against the opposite wall. As Loki approached, she seemed to lift her head in curiosity. Loki froze, pressing himself to the wall, waiting out as the woman glanced around. Her eyes focused, then unfocused, and she shook her head slightly as though to clear it.

Loki made a quick move with one hand, and the woman jumped a little. She reached into her pocket and drew out one of the small communication devices the mortals liked to use to speak to each other over great distances.

"Hey," the woman said, then listened. "Okay - hold on. I get, like, no reception down here." She stood and walked to the far door, stepping out of the room.

Thor watched the woman go, feeling a mixture of relief and nausea in the pit of his stomach. He was glad the woman was gone - she seemed more observant than the others. But watching Loki pull the same trick on her that he had used on Agent Coulson so long ago was a sharp reminder. The image flickered in his mind - Loki stabbing Coulson with his staff as Thor was forced to watch, helpless, in the glass cage. And then Loki's almost playful hesitation before pressing the panel that had sent Thor plummeting to the earth.

_You cannot forget what he has done_, he reminded himself. _Keep vigilant. Do not allow him even a modicum of control_.

Loki began to move again and Thor followed him, wicking their way along the wall until they reached the far door.

This lock gave Loki a little trouble. He held his hand against it for a long time, glancing over his shoulder as Thor tried to keep as still as he could.

When Loki finally managed to get into the lock that held the door, he slid into the narrowest opening he could manage. Thor slid after him, but had to prize the door slightly wider. Still, the remaining guards raised no alarm before the door clicked shut behind the two, after which Thor heaved a sigh of relief. They were in a small hallway before another door bearing a sign warning them to close the exterior door before opening the interior. Loki pushed this door open, and they found themselves in a small room.

But then Loki whispered "damn."

Thor glanced around the room. It was small and almost entirely empty, save a single table in the center. But Loki's gaze was fixed to Jane's box.

"Look," Loki said, and pointed. The line on the panel was nearly to the top - exactly what Jane had told them to look for. The rays were here, certainly, but the ring-

"It's gone," breathed Loki, and the expression on his face - well, it wasn't a scowl exactly. There was too much fear in his face for that.

Loki stalked around the table, then picked it up, examining the underside. He put it down, then moved to the walls, first tapping at them, then laying a palm against one.

"The mortal woman was correct - the walls are lead," Loki said.

"She has a name," Thor said, but Loki ignored him.

"The radiation in the room should have been contained by the walls, but the source - if the doors were opened to remove the ring, that would explain the radiation and why this area showed up on the map-" Loki cut off, clicking his tongue. "_Damn_," he hissed.

"The moving spot then - could that be-" Thor started.

"Perhaps, but we do not know where it is now," snapped Loki.

"We could return to the machine," Thor started.

"And by the time we got to the place the map indicates, it will have moved on," said Loki. "It's too much time. We need to-" he cut off again, starting to pace in the small room. Thor watched him, trying to come up with his own plan. Perhaps Jane's small box could help them, but the city alone was vast. How could they locate this tiny thing among so many?

"The woman," Loki said then, stopping so quickly that he wobbled slightly in place. "The one outside. I need to speak with her. She is observant; if the ring was taken from this place, she may have noticed something-"

"Absolutely not," said Thor, before he could even really think about it.

"What?" asked Loki. He looked furious.

"I said no," Thor said. "It was all I could do to allow you to speak with Jane - I will not put you in any innocent mortal's path." He could not put the image out of his mind - the son of Coul, impaled through the chest, and only for the crime of having been Thor's friend.

_And he protected Jane - he sent her far away as soon as he knew that Loki was on earth. And I - I brought him straight to her_. He felt sick again, and the nausea seemed to ground him. "You are not to speak to this mortal, Loki."

Loki whirled on him practically snarling. "Do you understand that we must do whatever it takes to find this ring? _Do_ you? Do you have the _faintest_ understanding of what is at stake?" His voice rose to a near scream, and Thor thought that for the first time he was seeing the Loki he'd encountered when last on Midgard - violent, vicious, and utterly unhinged.

Thor willed himself to stay calm and still. "No, Loki," he said. "I am beginning to think that I do not know what is at stake. Why are you so fixated on finding this ring? It is not for Father, not for Aunt Freia, and not for Asgard. It is for you. I think you ought to tell me why."

Loki stared at Thor, breathing hard, his jaw jutting out, but he did not answer.

"Loki, what did you promise in exchange for the army?" Thor asked, his voice dropping until it was just above a whisper. "Was it this ring? What did you-"

"What do you know of what I've done? What do you know of what I've _seen_?" Loki said, bringing his face an inch from Thor's until Thor could feel a fine mist of spittle spray his face. "You should be on your knees every day thanking fate that you have not had to endure a fraction of what I have. You have _no idea_-"

"Then tell me, Loki," Thor said, aware of but unable to stop the pleading in his voice. "Just tell me, and we will face whatever it is together. As we once did - as we still could. It isn't too late. It's never too late."

"Let me speak to the mortal-" Loki began.

"No, Loki," Thor said. "I cannot allow that."

"_FINE_!" Loki shrieked, directly in Thor's face. Then he turned, hanging his head over his chest. "Fine," he repeated, in a lower tone. "If you wish your hammer to be lost to you forever, so be it."

"Loki," Thor said, "you still do not understand. Even the most powerful object is not worth the life of a single being - whether they are mortal or no. You helped me learn that lesson. Perhaps it is time you learned it yourself."

Loki turned again, giving Thor a look of pure loathing. "_Sentiment_," he muttered. "If you're just giving up, then let's go. I'm looking forward to Aunt Freia's wedding, and I wouldn't want to miss any of the festivities." He shoved Jane's back box into Thor's chest, forcing him to take it, then held his hand out toward the Tesseract case. Thor jerked the Tesseract away.

"I told Jane we would come back," he said.

"Oh, and did you _promise_?" said Loki with a sneer. "In that case, we had better get out there, we wouldn't want _Jane_ to be _disappointed_, would we?" He took two steps toward the door, then looked back over one shoulder. "Not again, anyway."

The sting in the remark seemed to piece Thor through the chest, in the same place he had watched Loki stab Coulson. But he held himself still and steady, and followed Loki out of the doors, skirting the wall again and moving slowly to avoid the gaze of the women there.

"Did you guys hear something?" the woman with the curly hair said as they passed. The other two women lifted their heads briefly, but didn't respond.

Once they were out of the room, Loki sped up, heading to the stairwell, palming the lock and slipping inside. Thor barely grabbed the handle of the door before it could click shut, and by that time Loki was halfway to the next floor. "Loki, _wait_," Thor called up, as loudly as he dared. Loki didn't answer but he did wait at the door to the ground floor, fuming and silent. Thor sighed, and opened the door for them to exit.

Once outside the building, Jane, who had been sitting on the steps leading up to the door, leaped to her feet, her face lit with anticipation. Loki swept past her without looking, and she twisted her head around, watching him as he stalked off. She turned back to Thor.

"Was-" she started, but cut off when she saw Thor shake his head.

"The - ah, the ray-"

"Radiation," Jane prompted.

"Yes - that. Was there. The object was not." Thor told Jane the rest of what they had found in the building, the strange interior room, and what Loki suspected had happened to the ring.

"Well damn," Jane said, her shoulders slumping. But then she paused, looking thoughtful. "But you know, it's kind of lucky."

"Why is that?" asked Thor.

"Well, if the ring had been locked up in that lead room, we would never have found it with the Tesseract," she said. "Lead blocks gamma radiation, so it wouldn't even have shown up on the sonar. It must have been taken pretty recently too, if the radiation didn't have time to dissipate from the outer room. Between that and the fact that the thing was in Manhattan in the first place... it's a pretty huge coincidence." She gave a little laugh. "Must be fate," she said.

"Actually Jane," said Thor, with a nervous glance at Loki, who was some distance away and glowering at them, his arms crossed. "I am beginning to think that perhaps it is not such a good idea for us to find this ring."

Jane let out a breath through her nose as she followed Thor's gaze. "Yeah," she said, "your brother's being shady as hell, but if that thing's really out there? Like, if someone took it and is running around with it?" She shook her head. "People could get sick just by getting too close. It's not safe to leave that thing on earth. We have to find it."

Thor considered this. Was this what Loki meant when he'd said that Thor had no idea about what was at stake? He dismissed the thought immediately. If there was one thing Loki had demonstrated clearly during his time in Midgard, it was that he held no regard for the lives of mortals. He sighed. "In that case, I am afraid I do not know what we ought to do to find it. Loki is right that by the time we go to your machine and back, whoever has the ring will have moved on. Can you think of any way we could fix its location?"

Jane looked at the ground for a long moment. But before she could speak, the silence was broken by a low, loud grumbling.

"Uh - excuse me," Jane said, flushing and clutching at her stomach.

Thor tried to keep from laughing, but he couldn't - the sound had rivaled Volstagg's stomach at his most ravenous. "Are you hungry?" he asked.

Jane grinned. "Yeah, I'm starving. And it's cold out, and it's getting late. We're not going to get anything done by running around without a plan, so why don't we get some dinner and see if we can think of something, huh?"

Thor looked back at Loki. "If it is all right with you," he said.

Jane said "yeah, it's fine," in an offhand way that Thor did not particularly like. But he let her lead the way back to the car, beckoning to Darcy. Loki refused to look at any of them as they approached.

_Just tell me what it is_, Thor thought, but neither he nor Loki said anything as they walked back to Jane's car.


	7. Chapter 7

It was getting dark by the time Jane parked her car in the garage near her apartment. She'd spent the lengthy and frustrating drive in full-force Manhattan traffic considering where she should take the group for dinner. Between her frazzled nerves, ravenous hunger, and her desire to keep the two Asgardians - Loki in particular - away from the populace at large, she decided that in the end she ought to just take them home with her.

Loki was silent through the entire drive, even though Thor attempted to engage him in some light conversation - asking him whether there was anything in particular he'd care to eat,whether he was tired. She'd glanced into the rear view mirror in time to watch Loki give Thor a withering look, and turn back to glare out of his window. Thor quickly gave up any attempt at getting Loki to speak, and took on a rather hangdog expression himself.

The four of them trooped to Jane's apartment building in the gathering dusk. The apartment was on the top floor, large and spacious - an extreme rarity in Manhattan, but Tony had been the one who'd found it for her, and he knew things about New York real estate that the non-billionaire-genius-playboy-philanthropists among the human race couldn't hope to learn in a single lifetime. Jane had considered refusing for a more modest apartment, but at the last minute, she'd decided she liked having the extra space to offset her earlier, more cramped living arrangements, as well as the crush of New York. And besides, with her new salary, she could certainly afford it.

"Your home is lovely, Jane," Thor remarked upon entering.

"Yeah, isn't it great?" gushed Darcy, who loved Jane's apartment more than Jane did, if that were possible. Darcy was living on campus at Columbia, and escaped to Jane's apartment whenever she could. "Check this out!" Darcy grabbed Thor's arm and rushed him over to the door to Jane's balcony. This was another New York rarity, but one Jane loved. In all the months she had lived in New York, she never tired of the novelty of stepping out of her apartment to look out over the city, feeling above and apart from the lights and people below. When she was out there, she felt as though she were living in the sky.

"The view is _amazing_," Darcy was saying as she opened the door, letting in a gush of chill spring air.

Loki, who had been skulking in the hall, now stalked across the living room and straight through the balcony door, blowing right past Darcy who gave a little jump back as he passed. He crossed to the rail and slumped on it, resting his elbows on the rail and raking his hair back with both hands.

"Ho-_kayy_," Darcy said, glancing first to Jane, then to Thor.

Thor's expression had gone stony. "If he wishes to sulk, let him sulk," he said. "I care not."

Darcy closed the balcony door slowly, as though putting the lid on a box that had unexpectedly held a sleeping snake. "Is he usually like that?"

"I don't feel like talking about it," said Jane, as she crossed to the kitchen to fetch her takeout menus. She rifled through the drawer, and took out a Chinese menu. The restaurant was one of her favorites, not because of the quality of the food, but because they were fast, and included free Diet Cokes in all her orders. "What do you want for dinner, Darce?"

The order came in record time, and a good thing too, because Jane's arms were starting to shake with hunger by the time her intercom rang. Darcy had marshalled Thor into helping set the table, so it was short work to unpack the food and lay it out. Thor went out to the balcony, and Jane watched as she set the dish of General Tso's chicken onto the table. Thor reached out to Loki's arm, but Loki whirled around before Thor could touch him. Jane could hear Loki's voice, raised but muffled by the glass so that she couldn't make out what he was saying. She watched Thor start away from Loki, then back toward the door, finally turning to open it and enter the apartment again.

Another puff of cold air entered the space, along with Loki's voice, rasping and raised, loud enough that it filled the whole apartment. "-think I would eat anything made by the filthy hands of mortals? Unlike you I don't shovel anything I see into my mouth the way a bilgesnipe-"

Thor closed the door behind him, and Loki's rant was muffled again. "Loki thanks you very much, but he does not care for any dinner just now," Thor said.

"Oh. That's nice of him," Jane said. "Come on and eat - have you ever had Chinese before?"

"What is a Chinese?" Thor asked, approaching the table. "It smells delicious." His mood seemed to lift at the sight of the food.

Once she started eating, Jane's mood started to lift as well. Darcy fetched a bottle of so-so rum from the back of Jane's cupboard, and after drinking some mixed with the Diet Coke, the muscles in Jane's shoulders began to relax. Darcy started retelling the story of the NYU film student who kept breaking up with her over David Foster Wallace, and Jane tried to teach Thor how to use chopsticks. He was hopeless and spilled rice all over the table, but gamely kept trying, laughing as he did. Jane glanced to the balcony door from time to time, but by then it was dark enough that she couldn't see out. It was as though Loki wasn't even there, as though the ring didn't exist, as though Thor had come just for her.

After demolishing the food, Jane and Darcy carried plates into the kitchen while Thor gathered the plastic takeout trays from the table.

"Listen," Darcy said, "I think I'm gonna take off, yeah?"

"Don't want to help me wash up?" Jane said.

"Uh, I think I'm kind of fifth wheeling it?" Darcy said, giving Jane a meaningful look.

"I don't think you're the fifth wheel here," Jane said, with a glance back at the balcony.

"Okay, if he stays out there all night though? This is the quietest quiet time you guys are going to get. Take _advantage_."

"Yeah, no, that would be extremely weird and awkward," Jane said.

"You're just limiting yourself," chided Darcy. "How did you even get through college?"

"I was usually the one studying in the laundry room when the sock went on the door," Jane said, smiling a little to hide how it still hurt - how lonely she'd felt, shut out of her space, the hard chugging washing machine cold against her back, the book on her knees, the glare of the fluorescent lights overhead. How exotic sex had seemed to her then, a flashing, slippery fish darting just outside of her reach. How disappointed she'd felt at the sticky, fumbling reality of it.

"Well I'm just saying, the guy you've been waiting to come back for a _year_, and you've barely even said a word to him the entire time he's here. So if you're not going to talk, you might as well-"

"_Thanks_," interrupted Jane, "I'll take the advice under consideration."

Thor poked his head into the kitchen. "Where should I put these?" he asked, holding up the paper bag full of takeout trash.

"Oh. Yeah. Trashcan's here," Jane said, feeling her face go hot.

"Thanks for dinner!" Darcy said, a little too loudly. She kissed Jane on the cheek, then gave Thor a hug. "Call me tomorrow, okay? I'm totally up for taser duty!" She bounded out of the apartment before Thor or Jane could say good bye.

"Well," Thor said. "I am glad that Darcy remains so... exuberant."

"Yeah, Darce doesn't change," Jane said.

"Good," Thor said. "Ah. Shall I help with the dishes?"

"You know what? No," Jane said, stacking the plates in the sink and turning around. "The last thing I need is dishes." Instead she fetched their glasses and started mixing them both another rum-and-Diet-Coke, this time garnishing them with slices of an only-slightly-dessicated lime. "Here," she said when she was finished, shoving a drink into Thor's hand. "Let's just, like, talk."

They exited the kitchen, and Jane paused. They could sit on the sofa, but that was in full view of the balcony where Loki was, ostensibly, still sulking. Jane didn't like the thought that she couldn't see Loki, but that Loki, looking into the lit apartment, could see them. "Okay," she said, deciding, "bedroom." _Hope you're happy, Darce_, she thought as she led the way.

Jane had just done her laundry the other night, so fortunately there weren't any clothes strewn around the floor. Her bed wasn't made, however, so she smoothed the covers up around her pillows before she kicked off her boots, pulled her cell phone out of her back jeans pocket and sat cross-legged on the bed, hunching a little over her glass. Thor sat next to her, but not too close, both feet on the floor. Darcy's words came back to Jane - _the guy you've been waiting to come back for a year, and you've barely even said a word to him_. But now that she had him alone, she couldn't for the life of her think of a single thing to say. So she defaulted to the subject at hand.

"So," she said, "what are we doing about this ring?"

Thor stared into his drink, as though the ring were at the bottom of it. "I wish I could say that I had thought of something," he said, "but I'm afraid I am just as uncertain as I was."

"If someone's really got this thing and is moving around with it..." Jane started, then stopped, thinking. "It'd take too much time to build a portable machine for the Tesseract," she concluded. "I could do it, given a few months and some help, but we don't have that kind of time."

"Could - would Erik help?" Thor asked. Jane started, nearly spilling her drink, and Thor noticed. "I did not mean that I do not respect your abilities, but perhaps - if I sent Loki back to Asgard, would he-"

"Thor," Jane started, then stopped, unsure of how to say it. She took two long swallows of her drink before she decided just to be direct. "Erik can't help us right now. He's in rehab."

"What-" Thor said.

"Oh - God - it's like, a place where people go when they have problems. Like, substance problems. And when they might hurt themselves, so they're put in a place where they can be watched."

Jane watched as Thor processed this information, still staring into his drink.

"Did Erik hurt himself?" he finally asked.

"Yeah," Jane said, and she surprised herself at how abrupt and bitter she sounded. "The night I got back from Norway."

* * *

_I should just try to sleep - let my body adjust_, Jane thought, leaning against the bathroom sink, her glass of water in hand. It was good advice, and sensible. But like all good advice, she did not feel very compelled to follow it. She was awake, and wasn't about to frustrate herself by lying in bed and trying to pretend otherwise.

So the question was, what should she do? She had some books in her carry-on, but none of them had interested her on the plane, and none of them seemed appealing now. There was the television - she had always had a secret weakness for watching cable in hotels, since she rarely had been able to afford it on a permanent basis. But even the wonders of _Hoarders_ and _Here Comes Honey Boo Boo _did not tempt her.

She walked out of the bathroom to the bedroom window, sweeping the shade back to see the bright, uneven lights of a New York beginning its recovery. She felt the cars on the streets below her, as though they were running under her skin, as though they hummed with her own pulse.

She wanted to know what had happened here, why so many had died, for what? That's what she asked herself as she stared out the window. _For what? For what? For what?_

Funny, she hadn't thought to ask Erik. She'd been too relieved to see him, too unmoored by the events of the past day, too starstruck at having had dinner with _the_ Tony Stark. And it struck her then, that Erik had never really answered her question - where had he been? Had he been in New York? Had he been helping the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents - had he been with Agent Coulson? Had he seen Agent Coulson die?

She wasn't sure she wanted to know. But then she turned on herself. This wasn't some movie where she could just shut her eyes any time things got too scary. This was real, and if Erik had been through something, she needed to know. She picked up the phone and dialed Erik's room.

Although it was ten past two in the morning, she hadn't hesitated before calling. She had known Erik for such a long time, since before she could really remember. He had taught with her father at the University of Chicago, had been her father's only real friend. Jane's father had taught her to love the endless mysteries of the cosmos, but it had been Erik who, when her father had been too busy grading exams, had driven hours with her, beyond where the lights of the city could reach, to a field where she could see the wheeling of the constellations above. He'd given her, as a Christmas present, a domed lantern upon which perforated plastic hemispheres could be placed, projecting the positions of the stars. She had lulled herself to sleep so many nights, memorizing the constellations on her ceiling, the seasons in which they would appear. Jane's father had given her the love, but Erik had given her the sky.

As she'd grown, Jane began to trust Erik to talk about the important stuff with her. Not the stuff her father thought was important and was so awkward with, like puberty and boyfriends, and the way some of the girls at school called her "Jane the brain" and didn't seem to realize that being smart was supposed to be a good thing. But stuff like whether he thought neutrinos might defy Einstein's laws of relativity, whether the universe would continue to expand or eventually begin to contract, and her favorite subject - whether an Einstein-Rosen bridge could exist, and if so, where it would lead.

When Jane's father had the stroke that would kill him, Erik was the first person she'd called, and he'd raced to the hospital, getting four speeding tickets along the way. He'd helped her with all of the arrangements that had proven so complicated, and with the heartbreaking work of cleaning out her father's office at the university. And he'd picked her up off the floor and held her when she'd opened the desk drawer to find that her father had saved every single crayon drawing of the solar system that she'd ever made.

The first Thanksgiving after her father died, Erik had invited her to his house for dinner. The turkey had caught on fire - she still had no idea how - and she'd had to douse it with the fire extinguisher, ruining the entire dinner and most of the food in the kitchen. So instead they'd gone out and had hamburgers and fries, and he'd gotten her a beer, even though it was six months until her twenty-first birthday. When the bartender had asked her for ID, Erik had said "come on, she's my daughter." And that, Jane realized, was true.

So she had never had any compunction about calling Erik at all hours of the morning, if she needed to. But now, as she sat on the hotel bed, listening to the whirr of the phone as it rang - and rang, and rang - Jane began to feel a black stitch of fear knit in her stomach. Of all the times she'd called, no matter how late - or how early - Erik had always answered his phone.

_He's fast asleep, he probably didn't hear, or he thought it was his alarm clock or something_, thought Jane as she dialed again. He'd been so tired when she'd been there. His mussed hair, his bloodshot eyes. And the smell of something, maybe vodka, on his breath.

She hung up the receiver, picked it back up, and dialed zero.

"Front desk," said the voice on the other end - too sprightly, she thought, for two in the morning.

"Hi," Jane said, trying to keep her voice steady. "I need some help. Uh - I was supposed to meet someone? I mean, another guest in the hotel, and he's not answering his phone. Or his door. I'm getting kind of worried."

"Oh?" The voice a little guarded now. _She thinks I'm sleeping with - oh, who even cares?_

"Yeah," Jane said. "Could someone come up with a key to room 1417, please?"

"I can have someone call the room," the voice said.

"No, I've called several times," Jane said.

"Well ma'am-" the voice said.

_The hell you're going to ma'am me_. "Listen. Either someone comes up with a key right now, or I call 911. Got it?"

A pause. "I'll have someone up right away, ma'am. 1417?"

"1417, that's right," Jane said. She hung up, pulled on the bathrobe she found in the closet, and padded down the hall to Erik's room. She may have lied about trying Erik's door, but she intended to try now. She knocked once, twice, a third time - louder. A fourth time, really putting some force into it. The room next door threw the bolt on their door, and Jane didn't care. She knocked again.

"Ma'am?" A fresh faced woman in a blazer and pencil skirt coming up behind Jane. She looked like an adolescent - she even had braces.

"Hi," Jane said. "You have a key?"

"Yes ma'am, he's not answering?"

"No. Please let me in." Jane could hear the wobble in her voice as she said it.

The woman - the girl? - slid the keycard into the door, and Jane pushed the door open, dashing into the room.

All the lights were on, and Erik was lying on the bed. Jane ran to him, grabbed him by the shoulders, shook, shouted his name. She got him on his back, and then saw the puddle next to him, and the froth in his mouth. Before she could even register what she had to do, she was doing it; digging her fingers into Erik's mouth, scooping out as much vomit as she could, the liquid slick and slippery, sliding between her fingers. All the while, screaming at the girl to _call 911_, realizing afterwards that the girl was already on the phone.

It wasn't until after the EMTs had arrived, shoving her aside to get to Erik that she saw it. The bottle of akvavit that she'd given Erik - empty, and lying on the floor.

She'd followed the ambulance to the hotel in a cab, vomit drying to a crust on her fingers, trying not to beg the driver to _go faster just please can't you go a little faster_. She huddled, feeling tiny and alone in the back seat, frantically thinking of someone, anyone she could call. Her first thought was _call Erik_, and this sent a sob bubbling up, escaping her mouth in a little moan.

Darcy was no good, not in New Mexico, and Thor - he was less than no good.

_He could have come back, he could have come right back, Erik was his friend too, I shouldn't have to be here, not alone._

She had only one New York number in her cell phone, and she called it.

Tony answered Pepper's phone, saying "Stark," in the slur of someone awoken from a deep sleep.

Jane had to fight down the sobs just to speak. "Tony?"

"Who is this?" He sounded much more awake already, and suspicious.

"It's - it's Jane," and then, her voice rising in a tremolo, so high pitched she sounded strange in her own ears, "can I speak to Pepper please?"

They met her in the hospital waiting room. One look at Jane's face, and Tony said "I'm just gonna..." trailing off, and walking away, presumably to either bully or charm someone into giving them some news. Pepper sat next to Jane looking bleary and somehow more comforting now that she was in jeans and a Black Sabbath t-shirt, her hair pulled into a hasty ponytail.

"Have they told you anything?" Pepper asked.

Jane shook her head, not quite trusting herself to speak.

"_God_," Pepper breathed. "Clint said it'd been bad but I didn't think - I mean, Clint seemed like he was okay. He was shaky for a while, but Natasha said he was doing well, nothing to worry about so - we should have been watching him, I'm so goddamn sorry."

"Who's Clint?" asked Jane.

"He's the other one that Loki-" Pepper started, then stopped. "Erik didn't tell you." It wasn't a question.

"I... guess not," Jane said.

Pepper looked at her hands. "I should have said something at dinner," she said, "but it just didn't feel like I should be the one to do it. Erik said you two were close. I thought he would tell you himself."

Jane didn't say anything, so Pepper took a deep breath, and told her what Loki had done.

It was the most unusual thing, Jane decided, to have a job interview in the evening, and then end the night sobbing in your new boss's arms in the cold light of a hospital's waiting room.

It was hours before they heard anything, but in the end she got to see him - between her lying about being Erik's daughter, and the entire hospital staff's awe at Tony's presence, they had let her in. Erik had had his stomach pumped - Ambien in his system as well as the alcohol, the doctor said - and was still unconscious, but he would be better in just a few days. Everyone agreed that Jane should stay at the hotel until Erik was released, and - well, after that, they would just have to figure things out.

It was dawn when Jane let Tony and Pepper put her into a taxi - they'd offered to drive her, but they'd done so much already, she told them that she could get herself to the hotel just fine. And she'd wanted to be in the cab by herself again, in a quiet place where she could think. She rode through the dawn, feeling New York wake itself around her, the rising noise and movement of the people in it shaking off the devastation around them to begin another day.

_I can do that too. If they can do it, I can._

She'd gotten to the hotel and almost immediately fallen asleep, and had awoken hours later to a frantic pounding on her door, and - when she stumbled to open it - Darcy on the other side.

"Hii-iiee," Darcy said, with a little wave.

Jane didn't move or speak for a beat, and then clasped Darcy in a fierce hug. "Holy _shit_," she said, "what are you doing here?"

"I got your message," Darcy croaked in a half-strangled voice. Jane had left a half-coherent message about what had happened on Darcy's voicemail at about three in the morning, and had expected to get a call back, or at least a text, not Darcy in person.

"How did you get here - I know you can't-" Jane stopped herself before she could say _afford it_. "I mean, you just came all the way here?"

"Well _duh_," Darcy said, extracting herself from Jane's grip. "Hopped the first flight to Philly, then took the train up. Is he okay?"

"Yeah, they said he'd probably be fine in a few days, but - sheez, come in."

Darcy hefted her duffle and did come in, and they sat on the bed together.

"What are you going to do?" Darcy asked.

"Well, stay here. Take care of him when he gets out. I got a new job, so I guess live here for a while."

"Oh, cool. I always wanted to live in New York," Darcy said.

"What?"

"Well, I'm here, right? I'm gonna help!"

"What about - school, your family-"

"Eh. Over it," Darcy said.

"But-"

"Look - Jane," Darcy said, "you know what it's been like the last year, right? Those S.H.I.E.L.D. guys, always around, recording my phone calls and opening my mail? Checking in on me to see if I've said anything about Thor? They locked me in my own apartment for two days after that attack, just to make sure I wouldn't talk. You were gone, Erik was gone - there was no one but those guys in their suits. No internet, and they took my cell phone. And I thought about it, and you know what? The only time I ever felt like I was doing something worthwhile was when I was with you and Erik." She raised her hands in a helpless little gesture, and then flopped them down onto the coverlet. "If I don't belong where you guys are? I don't know if I belong anywhere."

Jane stared at Darcy and breathed once. "Okay," she said, "yeah. I'd like it if you stayed."

Darcy grinned and this time she was the one who grabbed Jane in a huge hug.

"Oh, also," Darcy said, when she had let go, "I accidentally slept with my sister's boyfriend, and she set fire to all my old stuffed animals. So it's kind of not the best time for me to be in New Mexico right now."

"Right," Jane said, deciding to skip the part where she asked how the heck you "accidentally" sleep with someone. "Think you're okay to head over and see Erik?"

"Hell yes!" Darcy said.

And they went and saw Eric, and they stayed in New York, and they took care of things together, in the best way they knew how.

Erik was released from the hospital, and at first had been a good sport about Jane and Darcy taking care of him, letting them bring him soup and crackers, making jokes about being waited on, until he walked out of his hotel room one day and vanished.

It was Darcy who had found him after they'd gone on a frantic three-hour search - in a stale-smelling dive bar, half-past drunk.

After that, Tony had suggested that Erik might need a change of scenery, and Jane had reluctantly agreed. The rehab facility was one of the super-posh ones in the Caribbean that catered to celebrities, and Erik had reported with some glee that he was staying in Robert Downey Jr.'s old room. It was only supposed to be for a few months, but Erik had a knack for finding sources of illicit liquor, and was frequently getting into trouble for sneaking it in. He probably would have gotten kicked out by now, but Tony's influence and money kept him in. And there he stayed as Jane took over the job that would have been his, and tried to make do without him.

* * *

"So he's there," Jane concluded, "getting his ass in trouble and disrupting all his AA meetings. Uh - that's like, a method people use to stop drinking when they can't stop by themselves. But the problem is?" And here Jane sighed. "It's based on giving up your life to a higher power. And Erik just... he can't. Because-"

"Because of what Loki did to him," Thor finished. He'd drained his drink during the telling, but still clutched his glass in both hands as though he were afraid it would spill.

"Yeah. He still won't really tell me about it. Not that we get to talk a lot, he keeps getting his Skype privileges taken away." Jane didn't think she had the energy to explain Skype, but Thor didn't ask.

"I should never have brought Loki here," Thor said. "I should have left him in that cell. I flattered myself that I was no longer the selfish boy I once was, but-"

"You're not being selfish," Jane blurted. "None of this is for you, right? I mean, your father, your aunt... Even your hammer, it's to protect your people. It's not for you."

"I tell myself so," said Thor, "but part of me remains unconvinced."

"Why? What's selfish about what you're doing?"

"I suppose I thought that if I could bring Loki here, if I could prove that he was capable of doing something good for once, then maybe-"

"What - then it would be like all of it never happened?" Jane said, an edge of anger surfacing in her voice.

"No, of course not," Thor said quickly, "only that perhaps it would mean there was a chance for him. That I would not have to decide whether to incarcerate him indefinitely, or-" Thor swallowed- "to execute him."

Jane didn't know what to say to that. She didn't believe in a death penalty, but that belief was tinged with the awareness that until now, she had never known the victim of a capital offense. Loki had killed Agent Coulson, yes, but if it came to it, should he die for that? Could she bring herself, snark about the A train aside, to kill Loki in retaliation for what he'd done to Erik? How could Jane presume to decide who lived and who died? That sounded - well, it sounded a bit like something Loki would do.

"But I should not have even taken the risk," Thor continued. "It was not worthwhile just to indulge my own whim. I am sorry that I came."

"Really?" Jane said, and Thor looked up at her, abashed.

"I - no, I-" Thor started.

"Why didn't you come before?" Jane asked. "I know that you couldn't, not for a long time, but once you got the Tesseract - why couldn't you just use that to come? I mean - I thought you said we had a deal. Right?"

Thor shook his head, letting his hair fall into his face. "I cannot tell you for certain. I suppose that I - I felt that I-" and he raised his face then, locking his eyes on hers. "That I didn't deserve to."

"And what do I deserve?" she asked, voice hard. The second the words came out of her mouth, she hated Loki for planting the words in her head, and hated herself for using them. It was as though she and Loki had colluded to inflict the wound she saw blossom in Thor's eyes.

"You deserve someone who does not trail a mess behind him wherever he goes," he said in a near-whisper.

Jane thought about this. And she thought about Erik, living the last few months as an alcoholic on a Caribbean island, of Darcy's stuffed animals now charred and blackened, of Donald storming out of her trailer with half his things in a plastic garbage bag. She thought of herself, shrouding her hurt in work and nursing it in silence, and then inexplicably, she thought of Loki, standing on her balcony, alone.

"I think everyone drags their own messes behind them," she said.

"I am sorry, Jane," Thor said.

"Maybe," Jane said, "you ought to be a little more selfish once in a while." And she put her glass down on the floor, leaned forward, brushed the hair out of his face, and kissed him.

He didn't kiss her back, not at first. She had to take him under the chin, tilting his head up, to get her mouth solidly on his. He didn't resist, and let her slide a hand along his jaw, grazing the stubble. She pulled back, brushing their noses together, and let out a short breath. "Too much?" she asked, with a half smile.

In response, he set down his glass, grasped her by the waist and then he was kissing her back, pressing into her as she twined her arms around his neck, the sudden electric thrill of it running straight through her.

She couldn't let it go on too long - she pulled back, breathing hard and laughing a little. "Okay, okay, hold it," she said. "Sorry but I'm not all that comfortable with having your little brother outside on the balcony?"

Thor laughed at this, too. "Perhaps next time I shall leave him at home."

"Please!" Jane said, grinning so hard she knew she must look completely silly, but didn't care. "And maybe we could - no, no, I'm gonna do this right." She smoothed back her hair and took Thor's hand, striking a melodramatic pose. "Thor," she said, "thou hast arrived from distant lands - _realms_, I mean realms-"

Thor tried to keep a straight face, but sputtered and started snickering.

"And now I ask of thee-" but Jane couldn't continue, she was laughing so hard. "Okay! Okay. Will you go on a date with me?"

"Ah-" said Thor.

"It's when two people who like each other do something that's fun. You know, together."

"Ohh," Thor said, "courting. Then yes, I happily accept. So - what do you do in Midgard?" He frowned. "Are there balls?"

"Oh - um, no, not really. We could, like, go see a movie-" but no, that didn't seem right at all- "or go out to dinner. Or - oh, I know, why don't you bring that haunch of goat after all?"

"Really?" asked Thor.

"Yeah, now that I have an oven I'll cook it, and we can have dinner here. I swear I won't set it on fire."

"I believe you!" said Thor, but then his smile started to fade. "I would love to, Jane but-

"Yeah, the ring, I know. Are you sure you don't have any ideas? Because I'm kind of out." Jane leaned back against her pillows, and after a moment's hesitation, Thor lay down next to her, letting Jane settle against his shoulder. This, she thought, was very nice - something she could definitely get used to.

"Much as I hate to say it, Loki is the only one who has thought of something yet," Thor said.

_I am sick of hearing about Loki_, thought Jane, but she decided that she might as well hear it.

"All right," she said, "try me."

"There was a woman guarding the room where the ring had been. Loki said she was observant - she might have something to tell us about how it had been taken. He asked to speak to her." He sighed, and Jane's head rose and fell with his breath. "I refused to allow it. I cannot permit him to cross another mortal's path, knowing what he has done. I would have left him and spoken to her myself, but - well. I could not let him out of my sight. Not with you and Darcy outside."

_He's out of your sight now_, Jane thought, and shivered a little. She huddled into Thor's shoulder, and he tightened an arm around her.

"And there is the fact that I have not determined - I mean, I do not know whether Loki wants this ring for himself, for some reason. I am worried that he desires it for some purpose I have not yet understood, but I do not even know what this ring can do - I could not begin to say what he would use it for."

They lay in silence for some time as Jane processed this.

"What about me?" Jane finally asked.

"Hm?" Thor said, sounding distant and fuzzy.

"Have Loki tell me what he wants to ask, and I'll go talk to her - the woman. We could go first thing tomorrow." And then she thought of something so ridiculously simple, she almost smacked herself for not thinking of it before. "And if that doesn't work, we pick up some prepaid cell phones - so we can talk to each other from a distance, you know? I'll stay at the lab and see if I can get a track on whatever it was we saw moving, and you and Loki can chase it down. Darcy can drive you," she added, though she cringed at the thought of Darcy at the wheel of her car in Manhattan traffic. "What do you think?"

"I cannot fault the idea," Thor said. "Perhaps we should try it."

"Okay," Jane said. "Then we have a plan."

"I think it is a good plan," Thor said, "but if this does not work, I shall take Loki back home and try to determine something else. I will return as soon as I can, Jane, this I promise. I have finished torturing myself with waiting."

"Well good," Jane said. "That's something, anyway." And this time he was the one who tilted her chin up so that he could kiss her, and it was warm, comforting and sweet. Really, Jane thought, as she rested on Thor's shoulder, feeling his breathing go deep as he dozed off, it was perfect.

But she couldn't sleep. Not without knowing where Loki was, she couldn't. The rest of the apartment remained still and quiet. _Is he really going to stay out on the balcony all night? _she wondered. It had to be getting cold. She could make up a place for him on the sofa, she supposed. It would be the gracious thing to do.

She scooted herself down on the bed until she was free of Thor's grasp, just enough so she could sit up without waking him. Should she wake him? He looked so peaceful, lying there on her bed, and she felt a very pleasant fluttery sensation in her stomach just seeing him there. _Oh yeah_, she decided, _definitely dinner at my place next time_. She had a feeling that she was not going to be disappointed.

After a moment's deliberation, Jane decided to let Thor sleep. She reasoned that the apartment was small enough that if she yelled, he'd wake immediately. And it wasn't like she was about to dive into mortal peril. Make up a place on the sofa, tell Loki it was there if he wanted it, then come right back and have a nice night's sleep, safe, in Thor's arms. Under the circumstances, she decided this was an excellent plan.

She went to her linen closet and pulled out some spare sheets and a pillow, then carried them to the sofa in the living room. It was lit and empty - Loki must still be outside. At least, she hoped he was. She started smoothing the sheets over the sofa. _What would Martha Stewart say about how to host a mass murderer? _she wondered. _I mean, she did go to prison, she probably knows something. Four hundred thread count Egyptian cotton for your basic serial killer, in a dark color just in case of unexpected blood stains._

When she was finished, she looked back up. There was no movement from the balcony, no sign that Loki had seen her at all. So she plucked her jacket and scarf from the back of the chair where she'd left them, opened the door, and walked out.

The temperature had dropped precipitously, and Jane pulled her jacket around her more tightly as she stepped over the threshold, keeping the door open behind her, just in case. Once her eyes adjusted, she could see that Loki was still there, slumped against the rail, his chin resting on his forearms, looking over the skyline.

"Loki, hey," she said, and he turned his head just enough to glance at her from the corner of one eye. "Um, so. New plan is we go back tomorrow morning, and I talk to this woman you flagged? See if she saw anything, or can tell us anything. If you have any questions you want me to ask her-" she cut off, seeing Loki's expression change. His eyes narrowed, mouth twisted down into a scowl. It was the same sort of withering look he'd given to Thor in the car to shut him down.

On Jane, it had the opposite effect. "Well excuse _me_ if we're worried you're going to get all murderous on us - you haven't exactly given a whole hell of a lot of reasons for us to trust you," she snapped.

Loki didn't respond, but continued to glare at Jane in a baleful sort of way.

"And you know what the worst part about it is? About what you did to this city?" Jane continued, feeling the hard, smooth edge of her rage surface within her, "there was no reason for it. You just descend to earth and decide to take over, no matter how many people get killed along the way, no matter who you had to use and what it did to them. And for what? For _what_?" She raised her voice at this last, and it finally seemed to have an effect on Loki. He seemed to draw back a little, and the scorn on his face was mingled with something that looked to Jane like fear.

She decided to press the advantage, stepping toward him, and was pleased when he edged away, sliding along the rail and still not quite facing her.

"Tell me why you did it," she said. "All those people who died, and my friends who got hurt - tell me for what. Or just tell me there was no reason, and that would be even better, because then you would have just gotten your ass handed to you for _nothing_, you even fail at doing _nothing_." She could feel the sting of tears in her eyes as she said this, but she wasn't going to give Loki the satisfaction of seeing her wipe them away. "Tell me _right now_, you son of a bitch, you tell me _why_."

Loki was staring at her as she said this, the disdain slowly draining off his face, only the fear remaining. He'd backed away enough to reach the end of the balcony, starting when he hit the side rail. He turned away as though looking for somewhere else to go.

"No," said Jane, "_look_ at me when I'm talking to you." When Loki didn't move, she shot her arm out to grab him, to force him to look at her.

Her hand went straight through him.

Jane barely had time to jerk her hand back, letting out an involuntary squeak of surprise, before she heard a voice behind her.

"Well," it said, "now _that _was interesting."

Jane whirled around to see Loki - _another_ Loki, leaning against the balcony door frame, arms crossed, smiling at her. He flicked one hand out, and the first Loki vanished.

"Don't take it too hard," Loki said. "Thor always falls for that, too." He looked over his shoulder into the apartment, then cut his eyes at Jane, his sly smile broadening as he did. He stepped onto the balcony, closing the door behind him.

It was only then that Jane realized that the glass encasing the balcony was designed to dampen the noise from the street, and remembered how muffled Loki's voice had been when he'd been shouting full force at Thor. Even if she screamed at the top of her lungs, it wouldn't be enough to wake Thor all the way in the bedroom. Her cell phone was there too - lying on her bedside table, where she'd left it.

Loki was between Jane and the door, and worse, there was now only the rail between her and a twenty story drop to the pavement below.

She had made a very serious mistake.


	8. Chapter 8

Jane backed away from Loki as far as she could, which was about two backward steps before her shoulders hit the rail. Her mind seemed to be racing in twelve different directions at once, trying to process what she'd just seen. Loki had been out on her balcony all evening - only he hadn't, it had been some kind of illusion. She tried to think back through the events of the afternoon, to recall whether there was a point in time when Loki might have slipped their watch, but her mind couldn't settle on any one time.

_So how long has he been gone_, she thought, _and where the hell has he been?_

* * *

"Who are you?" shouted Flossie, still training her gun at the man's head.

The pale man in the dark suit seemed to take this question very seriously. He dropped eye contact with Flossie, staring at his fingers tented in front of him instead, pursing his mouth as he pondered the question. He was still for so long that Flossie's arms began to ache with the weight of her weapon.

Finally, he looked back up. "For now," he started, slowly, "I'm... something of a fixer."

"A-" Flossie stuttered. "You mean you're going to get it back for me? The thing?"

The man smiled in a mocking sort of way. "Get it back, yes. For you, no."

Flossie redoubled her grip on the gun. "I don't understand."

The man raised an eyebrow. "Well if you don't want it back-"

"No!" Flossie shouted. "No. I want it back." She raised the gun so that it pointed at the ceiling - slowly, half afraid that he was going to leap up when she didn't have the weapon pointed at him. But he didn't move from the spot.

"Would you like to sit down?" He gestured toward the sofa.

It was strange to be invited to sit down in her own home. Hell, the reason Flossie _had_ her own home - the reason she lived alone - was so no one could tell her what to do when she was in her own space. She considered refusing, considered pointing the gun back at the man, even though her elbows were screaming with the relief of lifting it. But he hadn't looked nervous when she'd had it pointed at him, and hadn't looked relieved when she'd raised it. And this made her even more afraid than Shitty Fucking Magician Al had, even when he'd tapped the back of her head with his SIG. So Flossie holstered her gun and approached, taking a seat on the sofa, but not too close.

"Here's the thing though," she said, cautious. "I don't have all that much money saved up."

"Much - oh," the man said. "No, I do not require any currency from you. What I require is information. I need you to tell me what happened when the-" he cut off, eyebrows knitting. "Do you know what it is that has been taken?"

"I never saw it," Flossie said. "Just that it was in a tiny box, so it's small."

The man nodded. "Best to keep it that way,"

Flossie frowned at this. "But I want to know-" she started, before a look from the man shut her up. It wasn't anything particular about his expression or the way he moved, but there was something in his eyes - pale blue and oddly flat, as though there were nothing behind them - that creeped her out.

_No_, Flossie thought. _He's not creepy. Not like Creepy Magician Al was creepy. He's _spooky.

Yes, spooky was exactly the right word. And all of Flossie's curiosity seemed to dissolve with the sure knowledge that if she did not do exactly what this man said, he would kill her with no more compunction than he would feel if he had batted a gnat.

"When was it taken?" asked the man, ignoring Flossie's obvious discomfort.

"Um - yesterday," Flossie said.

"You saw it done?"

"I was there," she said.

"And what happened?" the man asked, leaning toward her with a snakey sort of curiosity in his face. Flossie forced herself to stay still rather than back away. She considered whether she ought to lie, but couldn't find a compelling reason to do so. So instead she told him the truth - exactly what happened from the time she had met Creepy Fucking Magician Thief Al at the bar, to when he'd appeared at their job, to his absconding with the whatever-it-was.

If the pale man was an agent of whoever she worked for - the Reiner Company? - sent to suss out its employees' incompetence and punish or fire them, he didn't show it. He didn't scoff at her failings, and he didn't say "just a girl." He listened intently, asking her to repeat certain portions of the story again from time to time.

When she got to the part where Al had the gun to Jackie's head, the man smirked a bit. "Your kind are so intimidated by those little machines," he said. "What do you think - ought I to get one?"

"You don't need one," Flossie blurted without thinking. The man gave her a pleased smile, and Flossie began to relax a little. Even if he were immune to guns -_ and God is that what he meant? He's immune to guns? _- he certainly wasn't immune to a good old fashioned ego stroking. She might get out of this alive after all.

Flossie brought her story to its conclusion, with Al racing out, and her realizing that he'd taken the whatever-it-was. The man frowned, and for one frozen moment, Flossie was convinced he'd ask why they hadn't reported the theft or called the police, wondered what answer she could possibly give. But instead he asked "and you do not know where he has taken it?"

"Uh, no. I haven't seen him since, I don't even know where he lives."

The man went quiet, which made Flossie extremely nervous. "Listen - I'm sorry, I-" she started, with only the vaguest sense of what she was apologizing for. But the man gave a half-hearted wave, stopping her.

"No, the information with which you have provided me is extremely useful," he said, not quite looking at her. "I believe that once I locate this... individual I should have no trouble retrieving the object."

Flossie felt almost numb with relief. "Oh, thank God," she said. "Because seriously, I could lose my job if I don't-" she cut off then, realizing first that she was babbling, and second, that this man didn't give a single fuck about her losing her job. _He's not your friend_, she reminded herself, all her fear rushing back.

"Incidentally," the man said, "do you feel that your cellular structure is breaking down?"

"I - my what?" Flossie asked.

"Well. It isn't important," the man said. "I think we're finished. Oh - there is just one thing."

Flossie tried to breathe and found she couldn't, as though her lungs had petrified.

The man reached out toward her, stopped, and picked up the _Anthology of American Poetry_.

"May I borrow this?" he asked. "They've taken away my books at home."

"Sure," Flossie said, and it came out in a squeak. She didn't know who "they" were or what they'd done with his books, and she didn't want to know.

"Thank you," he said, rising in one smooth movement, seeming to tuck the book into his topcoat as though he had a pocket large enough to hold it. He gave her a smile that Flossie did not like at all. "I'll see you again," he said.

Flossie didn't know what to say to that. She looked at the coffee table, at the chair where the man had been, at her hands. And when she looked up, the man was gone, and Flossie could breathe again.

She stood and examined every inch of her studio, looking in her closet, her drawers, behind her desk, under her bed. Her hands shook, and she tried not to notice them shaking. She told herself the man was gone, he couldn't possibly be lurking in her bathroom cupboard, and she did not listen to herself. Her cozy little cube of New York no longer seemed quite so cozy, or so little. When she finally climbed under the covers, she left all the lights on, and lay awake for a long time.

* * *

"I'd like to go back in," Jane said, hoping she seemed calmer than she felt. "It's getting cold."

"Yes, it is," Loki said, "but I don't think we'll go in just yet. We had a deal, don't you remember?"

"No," Jane said.

"You said that if your machine worked, we'd talk. Well, the machine certainly worked, even if we haven't yet got what we came for. So let's... talk."

_Careless_, Jane thought. _God why was I so careless-_

"I don't feel like talking right now," she said.

"You shouldn't break your promises," Loki said. "A man's power comes from keeping his word, did you know that? I suppose that counts for women too. I'd be awfully disappointed if you broke this promise, and you certainly know how that feels."

"Don't," Jane said. "Just don't. Let me go in."

Loki clicked his tongue. "You were ordering me talk to you just now. It seems as though I'm always getting that from someone - they want me to talk when I stay silent, and they want me to be silent when I talk - Thor is terrible about it. I find it exhausting, really. It's a bit like... ingratitude."

Jane had no idea what to say to this, so she kept silent.

"But I suppose that is my lot," continued Loki, giving a little self-deprecating shrug.

"And that's what you wanted to talk to me about?" asked Jane.

"In point of fact, no," said Loki. "Just an observation. No, what I wanted to say was - mm." He smiled at Jane again, as though savoring the moment. "When I was last on Midgard, I left something with one of Thor's - ah - compatriots. I understand you have fallen in with their crowd, so to speak, so I wondered if you might know where to find it."

"Find what?" asked Jane.

"A staff," Loki said. "About so long," he gestured with both hands, a bit greater than his shoulders' width, "and enclosing a blue stone. Perhaps they let the one-eyed Fury take it from them, but I sincerely doubt it, given the way he betrayed them."

"Absolutely not," Jane said, getting some spirit back into her voice. "There's no way in hell I'm getting you your mind control stick. I don't care if you toss me off this balcony right now." Actually she did care very much, but the prospect of showing Loki any further weakness was nearly as unappealing as an imminent defenestration.

"Again, you misunderstand me," Loki said. "The staff is not for me. It is for you."

"I - what?" said Jane, completely flummoxed.

Loki let out a short breath through his nose. "The stone was made from the Tesseract. The two are connected. Do you see?"

Jane did see. "You mean they can be used to communicate with each other - between here and Asgard," she said.

"Precisely," said Loki. "And, I need not add, it is just what you've been searching for."

Jane not only knew who had the staff, she knew exactly where it was - the top floor of what Tony was calling the Avengers' Tower. Bruce had been performing experiments on it, but Bruce wasn't one to stay in one place - particularly a close, heavily populated place - for very long. So he'd asked Tony to keep it in the R&D floors of the tower for him, and Tony had agreed. Tony had showed her the staff on her first day of work, when he'd briefed her on the Tesseract, but, genius though he might be, he hadn't made the connection between it and the proposed communications device. But if the two objects were connected - if Loki was right-

"Why would you tell me this?" Jane asked.

"Ingratitude, as ever," Loki said - laying it on a little thick, in Jane's opinion. "Is it so inconceivable that I'd like to recompense you for the assistance you are providing us?"

"Yes," Jane said.

Loki smiled then, as though Jane's answer had pleased him. "All right, then. I made a promise to Thor before we came here, not to leave his sight while we were on Midgard. Now, I would say that technically, I've kept that promise - he was able to see me since we left the building where the ring was taken, even if it was not precisely me that he saw. Thor would likely accuse me of splitting hairs - he was never one for nuance - and he would drag me back to Asgard and clap me in chains without even doing me the courtesy of hearing my argument." He sighed with the unfairness of it all. "I am putting myself at your mercy, Jane Foster. But if you agree to keep my secret, I'll show you how to build the device that you need."

"You don't think I can figure it out for myself?" Jane asked.

Loki seemed to consider this, dropping the smirk and taking on a thoughtful expression. "On the contrary, I have every confidence that you could," he finally said. "But it would take a great deal more time, and time is the crux of it, is it not?"

Jane didn't answer. Loki walked toward her, stopping when he was standing next to her, resting his wrists on the rail and looking out over the city below.

"I am beginning to see why mortals flock to this place," he said. "Below, with all those buildings crowding around you, it feels like living in a cave - or a cage. But once you are above all of that, it's like living in the sky. I find it very beautiful."

Jane stared at Loki, feeling a little struck by how accurately he'd described her own feelings about of life in Manhattan. "I think I agree with that," said Jane.

Loki didn't say anything for a long moment. He looked out over lovely, jagged silhouette of the city against the night. When he spoke, it was in a half-whisper. "I think that you are also very beautiful, Jane."

Jane froze in place, too stunned by this unexpected disclosure to respond.

Loki turned to look at her. "How long do you think you'll stay beautiful?" he asked.

"Wha-" Jane started.

"Ten years, do you think? Twenty at the most?" He reached a hand out, bringing it so close to her face that she could feel the heat from his hand - or was it cold? - millimeters from her skin, but he didn't touch her. "The collagen in your skin will lose its elasticity and go thin," he said. "The skin under your eyes will start to sag. Your cheeks will fall, and you'll get jowls. Your forehead will wrinkle, as will the skin around your mouth. Your lips will get thin and puckered, and the skin on your neck will wattle. It will happen so quickly. Beautiful and then - not. It's a pity, the waste of it." His hand was moving over her face, tracing over the areas as he mentioned them, close enough that Jane's skin seemed to crackle under his fingers, but he still didn't touch her.

"Thor has lived for over a thousand of your years," Loki said, "and he'll live another thousand at least - that is, if he doesn't get himself killed doing something idiotic, which I admit gets more likely with every passing day. And he'll look just the same as he does now while you wither away. Your life is like that of an insect's compared with his, and he knows it." Loki smiled again, leaning into Jane, bringing his face close to hers. "His father had a taste for mortal women too, so the histories say. This was long before Thor was born, before Odin's wife was able to rein her husband in with domesticity within their _very _grand palace. Odin used to walk the earth and seed it with his bastards. They all became very mighty heroes, but what of the mothers? The stories never mention them again."

Loki leaned even closer to Jane, putting his mouth an inch from her ear. "What do you suppose it was like," he said, in a rasping whisper that made the hairs on Jane's neck stand on end, "to be the repository for the lust of a god - and then set aside without another thought? Jane? _Jane. _Are you going to find out?"

Jane jerked backwards, away from Loki. She knew the stories, of course she did - not the Norse stories, but the Greek. They were the stories of her beloved constellations, and she had committed them all to memory as a child, before she had matured enough to understand their implications. Leda and the swan, Europa and the bull. The story of Danae, mother of Perseus, who hadn't even been given the courtesy of livestock with which to copulate - she'd been impregnated by a golden shower. The women in those stories always seemed to have a single purpose - to bear the children of gods, and then to wave goodbye as those children embarked on a heroic destiny, leaving their mothers behind, and alone.

And it wasn't just the male gods - she remembered the story of Eos, who fell in love with a mortal man and begged that he be granted eternal life - but forgot to ask for eternal youth as well; the man had withered, begging for the release of a death denied to him. And Orion, of course, who had died as a result of his love for Artemis. She could see his constellation in the sky now - it was one of the few that could still be seen despite the glare of New York lights around her. It seemed to stand for the similar theme of all these remembered myths - when a god falls in love with a mortal, it always ends badly for the mortal.

Ten minutes ago, Jane had only been excited for the prospect of a date - just one date! - with Thor, but now she felt the years of her life stretch before her, and her uncertainty grow. If the date did go well - and the next one, and the next - what could she expect for her future? There would be no growing old together. There would only be Thor, young and strapping, while the clawed hands of time tore her slowly apart.

Loki was cruel. Loki was vicious. Loki was right.

"_Fuck_ you," Jane spat, and turned to walk towards the door.

An apparition of Loki materialized in front of the door, making her jump back. "We're not finished yet," it said.

"Yes we are," Jane replied, and thrust her arm through the middle of the apparition. Her hand went straight through it, and she clutched the handle of the door - but the door was locked. She pounded a fist through the illusory chest in front of her, banging on the door, but no one came. The Loki before her vanished, leaving only the taunting sight of the lit apartment before her.

A gush of terror flooded Jane's system - she was going to die out here, locked out of her home, only feet away from the one person who could have saved her. Loki was going to play with her until he got bored, and then kill her. She forgot all her earlier attempts to show strength and clung to the glass door as closely as she could, leaning her forehead against it despite how cold it was. "Please," she said, her breath a warm puff fogging the glass so that she could no longer see through it. "Please, just stop."

"Poor Jane," Loki rasped behind her. "You want so much, don't you? I understand what it feels like - to hunger for knowledge while surrounded by those who dismiss you, who either belittle your accomplishments or try to take credit for them. And you know what it is to lie awake at night tormented by endless questions, knowing that the person sleeping next to you considers your driving ambitions - your very life's work - trivial."

Jane breathed against the glass. _How could he know that? _That had been the source of her endless fights with Donald, that he'd looked down on her work as silly stargazing, whereas he was a _doctor_ in the business - no, the _calling_ - of saving lives. That was even how they had met - at a party thrown by a mutual acquaintance. Donald had been drunk enough that he was loudly arguing with a group of bemused partygoers that the U.S. government should scrap its space program and use the money to help those in need on earth. Their host had decided it would be hilarious to drag Jane into the fray, watch as Donald tried to convince her to join his side, and then laugh at his reaction when Jane said "actually, I'm an astrophysicist."

The scene had gone down almost exactly as their host had intended, except that Donald had caught Jane just before she left to go home, told her he felt terrible about what he'd said, and asked her to have coffee with him "to make it up to her." She'd thought he was a little full of himself to think a date with him would make up for his rudeness, but he had been charming about it, and besides, he was very cute, so she had accepted. Coffee had turned into dinner, dinner had turned into drinks, drinks had turned into breakfast, and breakfast had turned into the happiest eight months of her adult life. Well, they would have been, if he hadn't started making those comments.

They were just little comments at first, when they both were exhausted and snappish from working overnight. He'd say things like "I don't see why you should be pulling all-nighters - no one's going to _die_ if you wait until tomorrow." Meaning that he, on the other hand, was the important one, the life saver. When she called him on how condescending this was, he always apologized, and tried to do better. And somehow it was worse, watching him try, the way he had to make such an effort just to respect her.

So instead, she tried to ignore the comments, bottling up the anger she felt instead of letting it out. Those were the nights she'd lie awake, seething, listening to him breathe next to her and wondering whether she was wasting her time. And then one night after another comment - she couldn't even remember what Donald had said - she'd lost it, and screamed "_Goddammit Donald, everybody dies, you just postpone it!_" He'd stopped arguing, and his face had gone hard. Without another word, he'd packed half his things in a plastic garbage bag, and left. He had never come back for the other half.

She'd been alternately devastated and thrilled as she watched him go, feeling a fierce emptiness inside her, despair at his going and relief that finally she had been able to articulate her fury. But afterwards, she'd been ashamed. What a horrible thing to say; what was she, some kind of sociopath who didn't care about a doctor doing his job? She'd been embarrassed enough that she hadn't told the whole story to anyone except Erik, who had only hugged her and told her that Donald hadn't deserved her.

"How can you know that?" Jane asked Loki.

Loki ignored the question. "Do you think Thor will be any different?" he asked. "How could someone like Thor - who has never been denied anything in his entire life, who has no idea how to _reach_ for something in the distance - know what that feels like? How it tears you apart? He promised you _all_ the answers you seek." Loki gave a short, huffing laugh, not much more than a breath. "He, who didn't know enough to understand that someone like you can never just be given _all _the answers, because you will never stop questioning. Just another unkept promise, then. Just another man who arrives when he needs something, and leaves you behind. Aren't you tired of it?"

"Are you saying you keep your promises?" asked Jane, turning her head so her cheek rested on the glass, which was now warm and moist from her breath.

"Always," Loki said. "In my way. For example, I promised Thor I wouldn't hurt you. That I wouldn't even touch you, and I haven't." He lifted his hands, palms toward Jane, accentuating his innocence. "You see?"

Jane turned around, putting her back to the door. She half-feared that Loki would be just steps away from her, but he was still keeping his distance, leaning against the rail of the balcony. Maybe she wasn't about to die. If that were true - and if Loki were going to keep his promise to Thor - maybe she had a bit of leverage after all. "Well," she started, hesitant. "I don't want your help with the staff, or with the Tesseract. I'll figure it out for myself."

Loki shrugged indifferently at this.

"But if I don't tell Thor you left," Jane continued, "will you promise me something else instead?"

"What would you like?"

"The truth."

Loki's expression abruptly changed. He looked taken aback, forehead furrowed. He glanced away from Jane, then back again.

"What did Erik tell you?" he asked.

"I don't - what do you mean?"

"Hm," Loki said, but his expression relaxed. "All right. You may ask me one question, any one you like. And I'll answer with the truth. All right?"

"It's a deal," Jane said. She could think of at least a thousand questions she wanted to ask, but narrowed them down to two. She considered them both carefully before deciding. "Tell me why you want the ring," she said.

Loki smiled. "I thought you wanted to know why I attacked your realm."

"I decided not to be selfish. This time."

"Interesting," Loki said. "All right. I need the ring to fulfil a promise. The original consideration is unfortunately unavailable. I believe the ring to be a reasonable substitute. That's all."

It was the story that Thor had told her when they were having coffee - or was it? Jane wondered why Loki wasn't going into detail about to whom - and for that matter, by whom, this promise was made. "So-" she started, but Loki held up a hand.

"Question asked, question answered," he said.

"I have a sub-question."

Loki gave her a bemused smile. "All right, I'll allow one sub-question."

Jane considered. She knew if she asked Loki flat out to whom he intended to give the ring, he'd find some way to weasel out of answering. She had to find a roundabout way of getting the truth. She hissed a breath through her teeth, thinking. Thor had given only the most basic description of what the ring actually was that morning - that it was a powerful magic object, that they hoped the giants would take it in exchange for Thor's aunt - but it was one of the moments he'd glanced at Loki, as though hoping Loki would fill in the gaps in his knowledge. And Loki had said nothing.

"What is the ring - what does it do?" Jane asked.

"That's two sub-questions, but as we're having _such_ fun, I'll answer," Loki said. "I don't know."

"That's not fair."

"All I know is the ring's history, and its side effects - how the ring affects what is around it. That's not the same thing as what it _is_ or what it _does_."

"You're splitting hairs," said Jane.

"Ingratitude again," Loki sighed. "Believe me, I'd like to know what the ring is as much as you do. The histories I've read can be maddeningly imprecise. I'm wagering a great deal in the hope that it's as powerful as the rumors say, but I won't be able to know for sure until we actually find it."

"Well," Jane said, "Maybe I can help. Tell me what you know."

Loki narrowed his eyes at Jane, his mouth curling in what might have been disgust, but then he seemed to reconsider. He gave Jane a measured stare, and then spoke. "The ring was made by a creature known as a nibelung," he said. "A sort of dwarf. A clever craftsman, but one who was unusual among his race, in that he shared Odin's weakness for mortal women. Unfortunately for him, nibelungen are not considered very attractive to your kind, and he was unable to fulfill his appetites. He subsequently determined to reject love in all its forms in exchange for the mastery of an esoteric magic, which he used to forge this ring."

Loki shifted, settling in for the rest of his story. "I'm not exactly sure what the connection was - this giving up on love for magic. Whatever secrets he may have discovered are lost to the ages. But what is known is that the ring is immensely powerful. I told you that it constantly transfers mass into energy and vice versa without losing its inherent energy."

"Yes," Jane said.

"It has additional properties. You said that it would be toxic to mortals. Based on its history of having mortal owners who wore the ring for years, I theorize that the human that wears it is immune to its toxic effects - the ring protects its wearer from all injury, even from that inflicted by the ring itself. It also provides the ability to change shape - to change the wearer's mass without expending the amount of energy such a conversion should ostensibly take. And it prevents the wearer from aging, so long as the ring remains on his - or her - hand." Loki gave Jane a knowing smile at this last.

_Oh, you just would_, thought Jane, furious. _After all that about growing old, and now a ring that keeps you young? _But in spite of herself, in spite of the fact that she knew Loki was baiting her with the properties of the ring, had probably made the comments about aging so he could do it - she felt the first faint stirrings of longing inside her. If she had the ring, she wouldn't have to worry, would she? Not about eternal life, and not about eternal youth either. She would be free to love Thor for however long they both would last. If it were safe.

"What happened to the mortal owners then?" she asked.

"As far as I can tell, at some point all of them took it off. Whether voluntarily or forcibly, I don't know, but in each case, the mortal in question died very shortly afterward."

"Everyone dies," muttered Jane. "The ring just postpones it."

Loki smiled then, not a smirk but a real smile, but with a touch of the manic to it. "I couldn't have put it better," he said.

Jane went over what Loki had said again. All those things the ring did - he was right that they were side effects, districting from the real point. If an object could exist that did all of those things, what was it, at the core? She had stopped feeling cold; even her feet, which were clad only in socks, ceased to bother her as she thought. And then suddenly, with a jolt, she had it.

"Entropy," she breathed.

"What?" asked Loki, looking genuinely puzzled.

"It's a concept of thermodynamics - it means the dissipation of energy." Jane looked up, blinking. "All those things you're talking about - getting injured, aging, dying - all of those things are side effects of energy dissipation. That's what the ring does. It prevents entropy."

"But that would-" Loki started, and then stopped, his expression shifting as he processed Jane's theory. He looked back up at her. "Oh," he whispered.

It would do just as Loki said - prevent aging, prevent death. And the kind of energy it could store would be unlimited. If they were right, the ring could be the most powerful object that Jane had ever heard of, Tesseract included. It could prevent wounds, stop weapons from firing or bombs from exploding, potentially rendering its user invincible.

And Jane wanted it. She wanted it with every fiber of her being, the desire for it rushing up her arms and legs and into her chest like flames. She could hardly breathe for sheer wanting - there wasn't enough room in her for air. Jane forgot that she was supposed to be afraid and locked her eyes with Loki's.

The look on Loki's face stunned her. It was as though her statement had stripped him of the veneer of posturing and snark he'd shrouded himself in since he had first appeared before her on the street. Now, it seemed as though Jane were seeing Loki - really seeing him - for the first time. And she was, all at once, certain of two things - first, that Loki wanted the ring as desperately as she did, and second, that he was terrified.

Loki held himself incredibly still, seeming to force himself to meet Jane's eyes, and Jane had the disquieting sensation that she, too, had been laid bare before him. And she wondered - fuzzily, vaguely - just what it was of her that he could see.

A continent's worth of silence semed to stretch between them before Loki finally stirred, breaking it.

"And if someone - if I, for example, had promised you something," Loki said, slowly and so quietly that Jane had to strain to hear him. "But if, when the time came to pay, I didn't have it and came to you offering the ring instead - would you take it? Would you consider my promise kept?"

Jane couldn't seem to tear her eyes away from Loki's. She thought about lying. Her instinct told her she should lie. But somehow she couldn't bring herself to say anything but the truth.

"Oh, yes," she whispered.

Loki smiled, and it seemed to hold the faintest wisp of warmth. Then he closed his eyes, and in doing so, seemed to draw the veil between them. When he opened his eyes again, he was as closed off as he had been before this strange conversation.

"Thank you, Jane. I think it would be something to know a person like you." He gestured with one hand, and Jane stumbled back as the balcony door opened. "After you," Loki said.

Jane turned and entered the apartment, feeling as though her joints had gone liquid. She wasn't quite sure what had happened - whether it was dreadfully important or nothing at all. Someone inside was calling her name, and the sound seemed to drift to her in the thick indoor air that now seemed too warm.

"Jane?" Thor came around the corner, his hair a bit mussed. His face lifted in relief when he saw her. "You should not have let me fall asleep," he said. "I-" he cut off, his expression hardening as he looked behind her, and Jane knew he had seen Loki.

"Jane was just making up a place for me," Loki said. "It was very kind of her. You shouldn't worry so much. Everything is all right, isn't it Jane?"

Jane had only a moment to consider the choice before her - to keep her promise to Loki, or to break it. It would be almost like betraying Thor to keep the promise, but on the other hand, keeping Loki on earth might give her the smallest sliver of a chance of someday getting the ring herself - and all it might bring.

She weighed, and she decided.

"Yeah," she said to Thor. "Everything's fine."

* * *

Thor blinked at Jane, trying to clear his head. He should never have fallen asleep. He had been so tired - not bodily, but mentally. And lying in bed with Jane had been so restful, so peaceful, that he hadn't been able to help closing his eyes for what he thought would be only a few moments. When he'd awoken, and found the place next to him empty, he'd felt a stab of terror in his chest. But now that he could see Jane, see that she was all right-

But something about Jane was not all right. There was something odd - something changed that he could not quite determine in her demeanor. It was a sort of hardness around her eyes or the set of her mouth that Thor found he did not like very much. And behind her, Loki, barely able to hide how pleased he was. Something had happened.

"What did you say to her?" Thor asked.

Loki arched an eyebrow. "I said 'thank you.' I believe that is customary, even with mortals." He walked past Jane to where Thor stood, and said, just low enough that only Thor could hear, "don't worry. I wouldn't dream of touching your things."

The sudden bloom of rage that erupted in Thor was perhaps a product of his mental exhaustion, but he allowed it to carry him. He grabbed Loki by both arms and slammed him into the nearest wall. Plaster sprinkled down on both of them, powdering Loki's black hair with bits of white.

"Hey!" Jane shouted in alarm.

"I will not stand back while you insult her!" bellowed Thor.

Loki had a hard, chilly grin on his face. "But I've followed your instructions to the letter," he said. "You don't mean to tell me you've added caveats to our agreement without informing me - that would be terribly unfair."

"Listen, I have neighbors-" Jane was saying. "You have to keep it down, or-"

"I am weary of your games, brother," said Thor. "We will depart for Asgard immediately, and you will return to your cell. I was foolish to bring you here in the first place."

Loki's grin dropped. "If you think you have the slightest chance of retrieving the ring without me," he snapped, "then yes, you _are_ a fool."

"-I'm gonna get a noise complaint, seriously, everything's fine-"

"_Hey! I just met you-_"

Thor and Loki both turned to where a strange sort of music seemed to be emanating from Jane's bedroom. It was a bubbly, tinny, hiccuppy sound, and Jane turned red as the sound continued.

"_And this is crazy! But here's my number-_"

Jane clenched her jaw, and muttered "Darcy" through her teeth. She ran into her bedroom, and emerged with her small communications device, clapping it to her ear.

"Darce, you are taking that ringtone off my phone first thing tomorrow-" she started, then stopped, listening.

Thor glanced back at Loki who, to the best of his ability, shrugged.

"Why would I be watching the news?" snapped Jane, then her expression softened. "What channel?" She wandered to the large screen on her wall and took up a small black box. Jane pressed a button on the box, and a series of pictures flicked across the screen.

Thor's anger was dissipating, draining away like water down a drain. He let go of Loki, feeling as though he'd overreacted entirely. After all, if Jane said that everything was fine, there was no need to be angry. She wouldn't lie to him - would she?

Loki stepped from the wall, edging past Thor to look at the screen, revealing a rather noticeable crack in Jane's wall. Thor stared at it for a moment, mortified. It seemed that every time he arrived on Midgard, he ended up breaking something, whether it was a town, city buildings, and now Jane's home.

Then he heard Jane behind him. "Oh my God-" she said. Thor turned to see her punching another button on her little black box, and then a woman's voice from the screen.

"-Bushwick, where police are in a standoff in front of an apartment complex, where a man has allegedly barricaded himself after attacking a crowd of people and several New York police officers."

The speaker was a woman in a teal jacket and violet scarf which fluttered in a chilly-looking breeze. The woman's dark hair did not move at all. Behind her, a large building was surrounded by Midgardian vehicles, lights, and uniformed people, all running and looking preoccupied.

"Reports that the man in question turned into a dragon and began to eat members of the crowd were initially dismissed as mass hallucination, until an anonymous woman uploaded a cell phone video to YouTube," the woman on the screen said. The screen picture then flashed to a shaky view of a blue sky, and the sound of people screaming. The picture blurred as the view moved quickly, left, then right. And then a flash - a green-gold flash of something huge and scaly came into view, blurred, then focused again. The thing opened a mouth of razor sharp teeth and roared, eliciting fresh screams. It darted into the crowd below, and there the picture abruptly ended, the woman in the teal jacket reappearing on the screen.

"The remainder of the video is unsuitable for viewing, and has been removed from YouTube, but we've been told-" the woman said.

"Oh my God," breathed Jane again.

"Oh, good," Loki said brightly. "There it is. Let's go."


	9. Chapter 9

Thor and Jane stared at Loki in open-mouthed shock.

"_Now_?" Jane asked. Loki gave her a waspish look.

"Certainly _now_," he said. "That," he gestured to the screen, "looks like rather a mess. I imagine quite a few mortals are getting themselves killed at the moment. And I'd hate to think what would happen if one of your friends decided to play the hero and dive in after them," Loki said, turning to Thor. "If nothing else, you'd have quite a bit of explaining to do."

Thor blinked, astounded, and then gathered himself. It was no good to stand there gawking - if this was the ring, well, Loki was right. They had to retrieve it as soon as possible, particularly considering the crowd this creature had gathered around it.

"Yes," he said, "we should go."

"I'll drive you," said Jane, zipping her jacket.

"No need," Loki said. "We will take the underground train."

"You what?" Jane said, at the same time that Thor said, "the what?"

"It should be the Jefferson Street station I think, based on the street signs" Loki said, then registered both Jane and Thor's baffled stares. "I made a rather extensive study of the underground during my last venture here," he explained.

"But why?" Jane asked.

Loki gave an exasperated snort. "When one is leading a battle, one needs to know the terrain. Shall we?"

Thor turned back to Jane, who looked stricken. He went to her, putting his hands on her shoulders, hoping he was being reassuring. "I'll come straight back," he said in a low voice. "I'll come back to say good bye."

Jane looked into his eyes, seeming to make a decision. She flung her arms around Thor's neck, holding him tightly to her, pressing her cheek into his. And then she whispered to him, her breath hot in his ear.

"He wants it for something," she said. "I don't know what, but _don't_ trust him. Don't let him take it. Get it and come right back. Deal?"

Jane let him go, and he pulled away, the dread he felt echoing in her eyes.

"Deal," he said, and turned to his brother, who was waiting near Jane's entrance, scowling.

"If you're quite finished," said Loki.

Thor turned back to Jane, and she wasn't even trying to hide the way her face fell, this time.

"Go," she said. "Good bye. I trust you. Come back."

Thor found he couldn't speak. He only nodded, and turned away, trying not to think of how still she stood, how her hands were clenched, the knuckles white. He followed his brother out the door.

Loki led Thor in a brisk clip through the street, and then, abruptly, down a set of stairs that led beneath the ground.

Thor gaped around him in awe. Down the stairs was a vast series of strange tunnels that one entered through a revolving gateway at hip level. They seemed to be locked with the same sort of mechanism as the building had been - Loki had to palm them both through in order to allow them to enter the tunnels. They were a riot of light and color, and plastered with pictures of mortals enjoying various objects, with words superimposed upon them, only half of which Thor could decipher. He would, he thought, never understand Midgardian art.

They turned, turned again, and were upon a cavernous space, darkish and gray, with columns and tracks that ran on a level a few feet below the platform on which they stood. There were many mortals standing with them, just milling about, seemingly for no reason. "Do we-" Thor started, but Loki held up a hand.

"Just wait," Loki said.

Thor did not have to wait for long. With a rush and a roar, a huge cart came hurtling out of one of the tunnels to their left, and came to a screeching halt before them. The doors opened, and after briefly glancing up, Loki entered the train. Thor followed.

"I must say," Loki remarked in a low voice as they sped through the underground tunnel, "although I don't particularly enjoy being underground, this train is rather ingenious of the mortals. Much faster than that awful machine that your little friend insists on piloting about."

Thor glared at Loki, but Loki did not seem to notice.

"And so many lovely abandoned tunnels, too," Loki said, half to himself. "I wonder if all those scientists found their way out. They must have run out of food by now, if not. Perhaps they resorted to cannibalism" He shrugged. "I suppose I'll never know."

Thor stared at Loki, but Loki gave no indication as to whether he was joking, or being serious.

Faster or no, the ride seemed interminable and constrained to Thor. He much preferred travelling by horse, or better yet, flying through the air using the force of Mjölnir to propel him. At least with those he was able to feel the clean slicing of the air against his skin. These carriages were too narrow, too full of people, and they smelled terrible.

When, at last, Loki jerked his chin at Thor, and stepped from the carriage when its doors opened, Thor felt a relief commingled with the dread of being so near their goal. Surely it could not be so easy as this. He followed Loki in silence through another metal gate, and then up a set of stairs to the street.

It did not take very long to find the chaotic scene they had seen on Jane's screen. They could see lights and hear the wail of Midgardian vehicles as soon as they emerged from the tunnels. This at least meant that Thor did not have to follow Loki's lead. Instead he strode toward the light and sound, all the while wondering what the hell he was going to do to get the ring without the use of his hammer. Every step he took brought him closer to whatever confrontation he would have to face, but as hard as he thought, he couldn't come up with any coherent plan. He wished that Sif, Fandral, Hogun and Volstagg were with him. With them together, hammer or no, he had always felt invincible. Now, he only felt apprehensive.

He glanced at Loki, who was walking slightly ahead. Loki seemed to have no misgivings about whatever it was they were about to face.

"Do you have some kind of plan?" Thor ventured, wondering if the question would only serve to irritate his brother. But Loki only looked behind with a half smile.

"As a matter of fact, I do," Loki said. "But you know, brute strength is not going to be an advantage in this situation. I'm afraid we'll need other means to effect any sort of victory."

"What-" Thor started, but Loki cut him off.

"You're just going to have to trust me," Loki said.

Thor was taken aback. Loki couldn't have heard what Jane had said, could he? He'd been halfway across the room and she had whispered it. No, it wasn't possible. But had he known she'd say it? Something, Thor knew, had passed between Loki and Jane while he'd been asleep, and Thor wanted badly to know what it had been. But he had no time to ask - they had arrived at the edge of the crowd surrounding the front of the building.

Loki pushed his way through the crowd, loftily ignoring the protests of those who did not appreciate being shunted aside. Thor followed as best he could, and emerged into a ring of uniformed men and women who scurried among large vehicles under the glare of spotlights.

One of the uniformed men saw Loki free himself from the crowd, and strode toward him. "Sir, I'm going to ask you to step back," he started, then stopped. Loki had held out a small something before the man, which had the effect of halting him in his tracks. The man closed his mouth, then opened it again. "Ah-" he said.

"Who's in charge?" said Loki.

"Th-this way, sir," the man said, and led Loki and Thor into the fray. He stopped before a pair of men, one tall, thin and smooth-faced, the other stocky and bellicose, with a gingery bush of moustache. The moustached man glowered at their approach.

"Feds?" he snapped, and the man leading Thor and Loki grimaced.

"Homeland Security," he muttered, and then scurried away, leaving Thor and Loki with the two men.

The moustached men let out a string of half-articulated curses. Loki, coolly unflappable, seemed not to hear them.

"What's the situation?" Loki asked.

The tall man seemed far more amenable to Loki's presence. "Not sure yet, sir," he said. "People are saying it's just one guy - or it's some kind of monster. We haven't seen him yet. We've evacuated the building, no hostages yet that we're aware of. He's just holed up there by himself in 304 - those windows, up there. But we just don't know what the hell he wants. We sent in a few officers, and then an ESS - a SWAT team-" he said, looking at Thor, who hadn't understood the series of letters. Thor wasn't sure what a SWAT team was either, but didn't want to interrupt. The man's face had gone grim. "That was fifteen minutes ago. None of the squad came back out, and it's - well, it's real quiet now." He looked back up at the building, apprehensive. "We haven't decided what happens next."

"I see," said Loki, crisp and businesslike. "I think we can take it from here. Thank you, gentlemen." He started towards the building.

The thin man grabbed Loki by the arm. "Did you not hear me?" he said, his previously genial manner gone. "I just said an entire SWAT team went in there and hasn't come back out."

"Thank you for your concern," Loki said. "My hearing is excellent." He shrugged off the man's grip, and started walking again.

The tall man sputtered, and the stocky man stopped him from grabbing for Loki again. "He's not one of ours," the man said, muttering under his moustache. "His funeral." Loki continued to the building, unimpeded, and Thor followed.

He caught up with Loki just as Loki was crossing through the main door. "Are you sure I can retrieve the ring from this... creature?" he asked. "Without my hammer-"

"Yes, yes, without your hammer you are seriously compromised," said Loki, testily. "I don't believe you could get the ring off this mortal even if you did have your hammer on you. The ring prevents injury to its wearer - you'd only tire yourself out, I'm afraid."

Thor was aghast. Loki hadn't told him this - could it be possible that whoever this mortal was, he was really immune from all injury?

"Then how do you plan on retrieving the ring?" Thor asked.

"Well, I shall simply have to convince him to take it off," Loki replied. He smiled quickly at Thor as though this should be the easiest thing in the world, and turned to start up the stairs.

Thor stopped, considering this new information. A mortal, wearing a magic ring to ensure that he could not be injured - he had never faced anything quite like this. And it dawned on him then, that as much as he had wished that Fandral, Hogun, Volstagg and Sif were with him, they couldn't help, not here. When it came to bravery and strength, even amongst his powerful friends in Asgard - or even his powerful friends on Midgard - Thor had few equals. But when the matter came to trickery and cunning, he could have no better ally than his own brother.

If, that is, Thor could trust him.

He took a deep breath, ascended the stairs.

* * *

Al was not having a very good time.

After the confrontation with the crowd and the cop, Al had changed back into himself, grabbed the cash he'd picked up, and made a dash back to his apartment. He thought he'd hole up there until the panic died down, but the crowd had been faster than he'd reckoned, and they'd found him. He'd been surrounded all afternoon, unable to leave without being seen.

He'd thought about just trying to make a break for it, but he couldn't think of anywhere that he wanted to go. And anyway, it would just mean more people chasing him. Before he'd been sort of excited by all the attention. Now he just wanted to be left alone, maybe to go out drinking, find some tail. Or even just go out with Mike for some beers, for God's sake.

Mike was still lying face down in his room. He hadn't moved since Al had gotten back. Al hadn't touched him. He shouldn't have to worry about Mike, not _now_, not with all these cops running around outside. He'd think about it later. Trying to think about it now made his head hurt.

The cops that had been sent up, and then the SWAT team that had come after, they had been kind of fun. He'd changed and played dragon with them for a little while, laughing in bursts of flame when he realized their bullets couldn't touch his scaly hide. But it had stopped being fun after a few minutes, so he'd killed the stragglers with a few swipes of claws, and had eaten them. They had smelled and tasted wonderful when he was a dragon. Now back to human, he had a stomachache. And he was out of beers.

He was going to have to get out of this somehow. But how? Change back into a dragon and bust out the roof, fly away somewhere where he could change back without noticing? But where could he do that? Where could he go so far away that someone wouldn't see him - but where he could walk to somewhere warm to spend the night? It was getting cold. His head was muzzy and hurting from the beers, and his gut felt like it was going to burst, as if he wasn't digesting any of the cops he had eaten.

What he wanted to do - what he _really_ wanted - was to go to sleep and wake up to find that this whole day hadn't ever happened. He knew what he'd do. He wouldn't have punched Mike so hard. He wouldn't have gone so crazy, fiddling with all those ATMs. He would have taken Mike out for some beers, maybe found some girls for them to take back home. He went over this scenario in his mind, to the point where he'd half convinced himself that he _could_ go back, make everything right. But the lights, the sirens, the bullhorns outside said otherwise.

He was sitting in Mike's old La-Z-Boy, wishing for just one more beer, and three quarters decided that he'd just have to bust through the roof and hope for the best, when someone came in.

It wasn't too surprising, he guessed. The police and SWAT team that had come before them had busted the door pretty good. It was hanging by a hinge. But what was surprising was that the man who walked in first wasn't armed - and neither was the second man. And it was surprising that they were only two. This was, actually, so shocking to Al that he just sat, gaping at them as they walked into the room.

"Ah," said the first man. "Hello. Please don't get up," he added, even though Al had not moved. "You seem to be causing rather a lot of excitement outside."

Al just blinked at the man. Was he a cop? He didn't look like a cop. He was in a slick looking suit, not a uniform, and way too skinny. And the way he talked - was he British or something? Al didn't know that they let British people be cops, not in America, anyway. The burly blond guy behind him, though, he looked like a cop. Maybe they were FBI guys or something, like on TV. _Shit_, thought Al. He did 't know if he had room to eat any more guys.

The thin man said something that Al, lost in this reverie, didn't catch.

"Huh?" Al said.

"I asked if you're all right - did they injure you in any way?" the man asked. then he broke into a grin - warm and genuine. "No - silly of me, I can see that they haven't. Well done. May I?" He pointed to Mike's threadbare sofa.

"Uh - yeah," Al said, and watched as the man brushed some unidentifiable crumbs off one of the cushions and sat, back straight, and looking at Al with some curiosity.

What floored Al - what kept him sitting in his chair as though he were glued there - was that it was clear that this man was not afraid of him. And he wasn't being showy about it either. There was nothing in the man's manner that tempted Al to play dragon with him, to wipe the smile off his face. He was just there, smiling genially.

"Whadda you want?" asked Al. The words came out slow and thick, sounding syrupy in the air. He was beginning to think he shouldn't have drunk all the beers.

"Excuse me," the man said, holding out a hand. "Doctor Logan Blake, how do you do."

"Fine," answered Al, shaking the proffered hand limply. He glanced up at the other man, the large blond one. This man hadn't sat down, but was hovering by the apartment door. He didn't look scared either, just a bit cautious. And he looked a little familiar, somehow. He made Al a little nervous, but the thin man began to speak again, in a low, soothing tone.

"I'm so glad we were able to get to you before those awful policemen outside did anything foolish," the man said. "I assume you took care of them?" He glanced around at the detritus left by the previous raid - the pieces of armor, the helmets scattered on the floor, the splash of blood one of them had sprayed onto the wall. "Yes - I see that you did. Really, it was very well done. Thank you."

Al continued to stare in silence. How long had it been, he wondered idly, since anyone had told him that anything he did was well done? Any job? No, he'd gotten fired from or quit most any job he'd ever had. School? No, he'd dropped out, had never looked back, had hated every minute in that miserable place. His parents? Anything his mother said to him had been accompanied by the back of her hand. Magic? Any time someone didn't know what went into his card tricks rolled their eyes at him, but anyone who did know considered him a rank amateur, no matter how much he practiced. And yet here this man was, looking at Al as though he'd painted the goddam Sistine Chapel, instead of just dragoning around with a SWAT team.

"I represent an organization that's terribly interested in people like you. People with talent, I mean. People like you are so difficult to find-" he gave a short laugh. "Forgive me if I seem awestruck, but it's my first time seeing someone quite so talented as yourself."

"What-" Al said. He was starting to grasp the intent. Talented people. No one had ever called him talented. "You mean like, the X-Men?" he said, thinking of his comic book collection from when he was a kid - where had that collection gone, anyway? His mother had probably thrown them out - it was the kind of thing she'd do, just out of spite.

"I don't believe I'm familiar with that-" started the man, but Al started to get excited. Not the X-Men - comic books weren't real - but there was something real, something that seemed like it should have been a comic book. He interrupted the man, thrilling inside as he spoke.

"You mean the Avengers?"

"Oh," the man said, huffing his breath out and leaning back with a wry smile. "I don't believe it - yes, you guessed it. Exactly right."

Al's brain swam. The _Avengers_, the real Avengers. Tony Stark, Captain America, the Hulk... and whoever the other ones were, it didn't matter much, maybe he'd even meet them. Five minutes ago, he'd thought there had been no way out for him, but now-

"I do think you have precisely the sort of talent we're looking for," the man was saying. "I'd be so pleased if you'd consider joining with us. I think you have a very bright future ahead of you - you could go very far."

It was almost too much for Al to take. His entire life he'd been told that he was going to go nowhere, do nothing, until he'd decided to believe them and stop trying at anything much. He'd been drifting for years, scraping by, and now this man was promising him a future - a better future than even Al could have dreamed up for himself. He'd not only meet the Avengers - he could see himself now, at a party with Tony fucking Stark, drinking champagne in a hot tub, three - no, _four_ bikini clad women for each of them.

"There is, of course, a matter of ensuring that your particular talents are the right fit for us," the man was saying, but Al barely heard him. He felt, rather than heard the warmth in the man's voice, the promise. Had he thought his life was over? That he would have to bust through the roof just to get away? He'd just been paranoid. For someone like him, for someone with _talent_, there was always going to be a way. And this man was it.

The man was leaning toward him how, elbows on his knees, expectant. Al felt himself relax for the first time all day. Everything was going to be all right. All he had to do was trust this man, and everything would be fine.

* * *

Thor watched with increasing unease as Loki started to work on the large man they had found in the apartment.

That this man had the ring was quite clear. Thor had seen no more than a flash on the man's hand as they entered, and he was sitting now, cupping his right hand in his left, as though he did not want them to see the ring on his finger. But he could feel the magic emanating from it, and had to admit that Loki was quite correct about one thing - they could not leave such a powerful artifact in the hands of mortals.

_Particularly not this mortal_, Thor thought, sizing the man up. He was beefily muscular, to an extent Thor had not seen in any non-Hulked mortal save perhaps his friend Steve. But this man wasn't very clever - one only needed to see the slack expression on his face to know that.

Perhaps that lack of cleverness was why this man seemed to be so receptive to Loki's flattering praise. Thor watched Loki speak to this man in his low rasp, telling the man that he was talented, that he was clever, that he was necessary. He watched the man as his face went from closed off and remote, to opening, like a bloom, beneath Loki's words. It was fascinating, and not a little horrifying - akin to watching a snake play with a baby bird. Thor shuddered a little at this thought, then forced himself to keep still. He wondered at Loki's ability to keep a straight face as he spoke.

"Did you hear me?" Loki was saying. "I said that we need to ensure that your talents are the right fit for our organization."

The man jerked a little, as though waking from a deep sleep. "Oh - yeah-" he said. "Like a test?"

"Yes, exactly," Loki said, with a reassuring smile.

"I'm - not so good. At tests." The man's voice was slurry and remote, as though he were speaking under a deep pool of water.

"I shouldn't worry about that," Loki said, "this is a rather different sort of test. I have no doubt you will pass it easily."

The relief on the man's face grew so evident that it almost hurt Thor to watch it. "So what do I do?" he asked.

"Well," Loki said, then gave a little laugh as though uncertain. "I can't say exactly - I don't yet know what you _can_ do. Could you show me? Just something you can do?" Loki sounded tentative, eager, ready to be pleased. And as Thor watched, the man with the ring smiled, a strangely stupid yet crafty smile.

"Yeah okay," he said. "Watch this."

And he turned into a dragon, nose first.

The transformation was sudden and shocking to Thor. The man seemed to erupt from the front of his face to the tips of his toes, the soft flesh of him splitting and then scaling over in a blaze of green and gold. His stocky body stretched until it was lean and serpentine, it undulated as the now-dragon curled in upon itself in order to fit inside the small room. The smell of the dragon was overwhelming - sulfurous and heady, with an undercurrent of some unidentifiable spice.

Thor found himself pressing himself into the wall by the door, not wanting the scales to touch him. It wasn't that the dragon frightened him - he'd faced far bigger, uglier and more dangerous opponents in the past. But he felt now that if he caught this creature's attention, the gossamer spell that Loki had woven with his careful words might be broken, and this creature might turn on them. Even without his hammer, Thor might at least be able to stave the creature off, but Loki - never a champion at hand-to-hand combat, and now weakened from his self-imposed starvation - wouldn't stand a chance.

Loki had leaped to his feet in a genuine-seeming display of shock. He gaped at the dragon, which had twisted to face him, breathing puffs of acrid smoke from its nostrils, waiting.

Loki ran a hand through his hair, breathed out, found his voice. "My God," he breathed, "I've never seen anything like it."

Somehow, Thor doubted this, but he found himself impressed at Loki's acting ability. Another billow of acrid smoke erupted from the dragon, along with a low, guttural sound. It took Thor a moment to realize that the dragon was laughing. After a minute, Loki laughed too, but it was nervous laughter.

"All right," Loki said shakily, "I wouldn't mind if you changed back now, thank you."

The dragon seemed to fold in on itself, scales melting and melding, until only the figure of the man remained.

Loki seemed to need a moment to collect himself. "Well," he said, "that was certainly something."

"Am I in?" the man said. He seemed to have lost his diffidence and was now grinning at Loki, smug satisfaction radiating from him.

"Oh - well," Loki said, suddenly looking a bit flustered. "Well, that was very _interesting_, but-"

The man's smile fell. "I just turned into a motherfucking _dragon_," he said, sullen. "What do you want me to do, fight you?"

Thor sucked in his breath, but Loki just laughed. "Thank you, but I've given up trying to best large green monsters in single combat," he said. The joke seemed to deflate the tension that had been growing in the room. The man smiled tentatively.

Loki continued. "No, what I mean is that - well, changing into dragons and charging about with one's gashing claws and gnashing teeth is one thing, but brute strength isn't everything."

Loki may have given Thor a sidelong glance at this last, but it was too quick for Thor to tell for sure.

"No," Loki continued, "we are looking for those who have multiple talents. Strength is important, yes, but we also need a certain amount of subtlety in our - ah - representatives. Much of our work deals with intelligence and surveillance."

"Spying?" asked the man.

"Bluntly, yes," Loki said. "And even you have to admit that your appearance as a dragon is rather noticeable."

The man laughed a little at this. "I guess," he said. "But what - I mean, how should I-"

"Well, let's think a bit," Loki said, looking pensive. "A dragon is large and flashy - but could you change your form into the opposite of that? Something small, something unnoticeable? Like - oh, I don't know. An ant, maybe?"

"Turn into an _ant_?" the man asked, with a sneer. "What kind of retarded superpower is that?"

Loki shrugged. "Well, if you can't do it, I suppose-"

"No!" the man interrupted. "No, I can _do_ it, but-"

Loki didn't reply, but gave the man an incredulous look that was more expressive than words.

The man turned red and began to sputter, sweating in place. Thor watched, waiting, wondering what he would do. And all the while he was thinking that this exchange sounded oddly familiar - it rang some distant bell in his memory.

"Thank you," Loki said, his voice now cold and distant, "I think we've seen enough."

"_No_," the man said, spitting a little in his fervor. "I can _do_ it - watch!" And he stooped a little. For a moment Thor was certain that it wouldn't work, that the man was wrong - he couldn't change into anything small after all. But the man began to shrink, slowly at first, and then rapidly, darkening as he seemed to sink into the ground. And as the man's features fell out of sight, Thor realized where he had heard this before.

_It's Jón_, he thought, _Jón the jotun-slayer tricking the giant into turning into a toad_. Loki had played the old fairy tale almost to the letter, and now this man had fallen for the trick. Thor had the absurd urge to warn the man, to tell him to stop his transformation - but even if he'd done it, it would have been too late. The man was an ant now, black and crawling on the wooden slats of the floor.

Loki gave the creature one contemptuous glance before he stomped on it with his boot.

He stood there, with his foot out, waiting in silence for a long moment. "No," he finally said, "I'm afraid not. You don't appreciate the nature of the ring at all. Changing into a dragon gives you all the strength and ability of a dragon, yes, but changing into an ant saddles you with an ant's weaknesses. A dragon has the ability to change, but an ant does not. If you want to change back, you're just going to have to take it off."

Loki waited another moment, then twisted his boot on the floor. "Take it off," he repeated. "Take it off _now_."

There was a sudden pop as the air was displaced by the man changing back into himself again, and a high ringing ping of something metal hitting the floor. Loki moved faster than Thor had ever seen him move, slamming his right foot on the ground, and then snatching the man up by his neck. It was true that Loki was in a weakened state for an Asgardian, but even then, he was more than a match for a mortal. He slammed the man into the near wall and held him there, jaw jutting out, staring intently as the man's face turned red, then purple. The man's tongue protruded, his eyes bulged, and he made low, choking sounds.

"Loki," Thor said, barely feeling his mouth move. Loki didn't acknowledge Thor in the slightest. The man was going blue.

"_Loki_," Thor said, louder. "You're killing him."

"Hm?" Loki started, and turned to Thor, as though only just realizing that he was in the room. He looked at Thor, then back at the man, at his swollen features. Then he released his grip, and the man slumped to the floor, retching, scrabbling at the wooden planks with his nails. Loki looked down at the man, then back to Thor. "Well they're not very sturdy, are they?" Loki said.

"Do you have it?" Thor asked, wanting to get this whole sorry scene over with, to allow this poor man to recover.

Loki didn't answer, but raised the toe of his right boot. And that was when Thor saw the ring for the first time.

It was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. It was gold, a soft gold that seemed to shimmer and cast iridescent flecks of color where the light hit it. All the light in the room seemed to be drawn into it, and oddly, it seemed to give off a light of its own. Everything else seemed to dim in the face of this ring.

And Thor knew then that Jane was absolutely right - he could not allow Loki to take possession of this object, no matter what the cost. It was a wrench, tearing his eyes from the ring to look up at Loki, but he finally managed it. Loki, in turn, was staring down at the ring himself, mouth half-parted, as though baffled by its strange beauty.

_He cannot have this thing_, Thor thought, _it could mean the end of everything_. It would be worse than Loki's brief possession of the Tesseract, worse than his mind control staff, worse than any object Thor could think of. _Because I want it_, he realized. _Because it ought to be mine. Not for me-_ he added, hurriedly, _for Asgard. I could defeat the jotnar with the power of this ring, no need for any sort of trade, or to give up Aunt Freia. And Loki - who could tell what sort of destruction he could wreak if he were to claim the ring for himself?_

Thor watched Loki, waiting for him to make a move. Almost unconsciously, he felt himself clench a fist, shift his weight forward, prepare to strike.

Loki flicked his eyes to Thor's, then narrowed them. They stood there for a moment, weighing each other. And then, without warning, Loki stepped back, taking his foot all the way off the ring, putting his hands behind his back.

"Well go on," Loki rasped. "Take it."

Thor waited, wondering if this was a trick, but Loki didn't make a move. Slowly, Thor bent, and picked the ring up from the floor. It was thick and cool, heavy in his hand. He ran a thumb along it, feeling its curve. He half wanted to put it on, but somehow, he couldn't bring himself to - it was too perfect. And anyway, he didn't want Loki to know that he'd decided to keep it. He still wasn't sure of Loki's plan - whether Loki intended to take the ring some other way.

_Well, I won't let him_, he thought. _It's mine now_.

"Ready?" asked Loki, and it took Thor a minute to realize what he meant.

"To go back?" Thor said. "But-" there was something Thor was supposed to do before going back, he know, but he couldn't quite put a finger on it. He tried to think, but it was difficult - it made his eyes itch and his head hurt. He clenched his hand around the ring, which made him feel a little better.

Loki was watching this, and his expression shifted to the incredulous. And then suddenly, Thor remembered.

"Jane!" he said. "I promised Jane that we'd go back."

Loki went from incredulous to alarmed. "_Jane_?" he snapped. "Have you gone mad?"

"But-" Thor started, but Loki cut him off.

"How many times must I say it?" he said. "The ring is toxic to mortals - did you misunderstand?"

Thor vaguely remembered something about that, yes, but his head hurt, trying to think about it. "I-" he started again.

"Look," Loki said, pointing at the man, who was still on the ground. "_Look_."

Thor looked. The man was less heavily muscled than he'd appeared previously, he seemed deflated somehow. And there was something wrong with his skin - open sores had erupted on his arms and neck, red and weeping a clear liquid. He was still retching, barely able to lift himself out of a puddle of what looked like vomit on the floor.

"If you want _that_ to happen to Jane," Loki said, "by all means, take the ring back to her. But I suggest that if you'd like her to stay alive in the near future, we take the ring back to Asgard immediately."

Thor stared in growing horror at the man on the ground. His thoughts were a maelstrom. He did _not_ want to take the ring back to Jane. To expose her to something like this - the sickness, the pain that this man seemed to be in - was unthinkable. But there was something else about his parting with Jane that made him uneasy, something about the way she'd asked him to come back. Had he detected a hint of avarice in her voice? Did she want the ring for herself as well?

_She can't have it she won't have it it's mine_

Thor shook himself a little. How could he think that of Jane? And how could he even think of breaking his promise to return to her - again? But what choice did he have?

"I did promise her," he said, and his voice sounded small and distant in his ears.

"Thor," Loki said, and Thor looked up at his brother. Loki, for perhaps the first time since they'd begun this endeavor - maybe for the first time since Thor had been sent to Midgard, how that he thought of it, Loki looked sincerely concerned about his brother. "Thor," he said again. "You know that she'll forgive you."

Thor considered this, trying to bend his thoughts to Loki's meaning. It was difficult to do. His head _hurt_. "If I could just tell her-" Thor said. He knew all the words he wanted to say to Jane, he just didn't know what order they should go in.

_Loki would-_

Loki snorted through his nose. "Do you want me to send her something?"

Thor was startled at this. "Can you?" he asked.

Loki did not dignify the question with a response. "What do you want to tell her?" he asked instead.

"Tell her-" Thor tried to concentrate on the words he wanted to say to Jane. He wanted to look at the ring, to relieve the growing pressure in his skull. With a supreme effort, he managed not to, but met Loki's eyes instead.

"Tell her I am sorry," he said. "That I would not have broken my promise again, had it not been for the utmost need. To - to keep her safe, I mean," he corrected, quickly.

Loki raised an eyebrow, but did not say anything to this. He half-closed his eyes, and made a series of passes in the air, muttering something that Thor could not quite hear. Thor was glad for the break - he took the opportunity to hold up his hand, opening it so that he could just see the ring resting in his palm. The sight of the thing eased his mind at once. He felt calm again, and at ease. Everything was going to be all right now. Loki would explain to Jane, and he would go back to Asgard, defeat the jotnar and then-

"Done," Loki said, finishing his motions in the air. "And now, I think, we should go."

Thor glanced up again, hating to look away from the ring. He cast around the room, half forgetting how he'd come there in the first place. He saw the man on the floor. He'd stopped scrabbling and retching - he was still, covered in gaping sores, and his hair had begun to fall out. Thor squinted at him. "Will he be all right?" he asked.

"Who cares?" Loki said. "Let's go before those mortals outside decide to come in after us."

Thor held out the Tesseract case, which had reverted back to its cylindrical self, and allowed Loki to grasp the other handle. "Heimdall," Thor said, "we're ready." He waited, feeling for Heimdal's spell to surround them, and when he felt it grow solid and strong, he twisted the handle, and they went.

* * *

The moment the door closed behind him, Jane knew that Thor would not be coming back. For about an hour and a half, she was furious - storming around her apartment without much purpose, trying to decide whether she ought to follow them; deciding to go, then changing her mind at the last minute, then storming again.

_He said he'd come back again, he said deal, just another promise broken just like Loki said_

But after that hour and a half, something inside her head gave a little _pop_ - similar to the feeling of her ears popping on a plane, and she realized what she was doing.

_Of course _Thor couldn't come back, not once he had the ring, she realized. The ring is _toxic to humans_. What on earth had she been thinking, asking him to come back to her once he'd had it?

Actually, she knew exactly what she'd been thinking. She just didn't want to admit it to herself. It took another half an hour's worth of pacing before she could finally think it.

_I wanted him to bring it back so he'd have to give it to me. Because once I was exposed to it, the only way to save me would have been to let me have it._

The thought, so enticing two hours before, now sickened her.

_How could I have even thought that? To expose myself to radiation poisoning so I could get my hands on something that Thor needs to save his kingdom? His family? So I could have it all for myself? What kind of monster thinks like that? Well -_ besides _Loki._

She was pretty sure she could blame all of this on Loki somehow. She just hadn't been herself - he'd brainwashed her with all that stuff about never aging, never dying, and Thor-

She stopped herself. What happens now, with Thor? She hoped to heaven that he'd succeed in the remainder of his quest, yes, but after that - what? He was gone again, and she had no way to contact him, no way to tell him that she wanted him to come back.

_Should have taken Loki's offer after all_

Well at least now she had a lead - that stone, in that strange staff - and she could start to figure out how to communicate with the Tesseract. She'd start tomorrow. And in the meantime, she could hope that Thor would come back after concluding his business on Asgard-

_like he came right back last time?_

"Shut up," she told herself. "Just shut up and go to bed, and in the morning, you get to work."

It was good advice, and of course, she didn't follow it. She tossed in bed for hours, cursing the clock's slow progress across its face, huddling into the slight indentation Thor had left on her bed, until she decided that this was too depressing, and flopped back onto the other side.

She gave up at dawn, when her windows shone with the pale gray of morning light. She went to the kitchen and made herself a pot of coffee, settling on the sofa to drink a cup. And that's when she saw the note.

It was laying in the middle of her coffee table, an unobtrusive white envelope, with the words "Jane Foster" written on the front. The second she saw it, she knew it was not from Thor. She knew Thor's handwriting - she had his note from his last visit to Asgard tucked into her bedside table drawer, and looked at it every night before going to sleep. Thor's writing was straight up and down, direct and heavy-lined, with a curious serif now and then. This note was written in a slanting, spidery script, thin-lined and light on the page. It wasn't too difficult to determine who this note was from.

She almost didn't want to open it, just to spite him, but of course her curiosity was far too great to let the note lie unread for long. She tore the envelope and eased out the pieces of paper inside.

_My dear Jane - _

Jane snorted at this, but kept reading.

_I'm so sorry to say that I won't be able to convince Thor to keep his promise to come back and see you. I think it is terribly unfortunate - it was very clever and underhanded of you even to suggest it, and I so would have liked to have seen what you would have done, had he actually brought the ring to you. Alas, it was not meant to be. Better luck next time._

Jane's stomach twisted, reading this. Loki had seen right through her scheme. She only hoped that he'd keep it to himself. She couldn't stand it if Thor knew the horrible, devious things she'd been thinking about tricking him into giving her the ring.

_It was Loki's fault_, she thought. _He hypnotized me_. But the thought didn't quite wash, somehow. Why would Loki try to brainwash her into trying to get at this ring when she knew Loki wanted it himself? And he did want it, as badly as she had - that much she was sure of. She shivered a little, remembering how it had felt to look into his eyes and see the intensity of his avarice - avarice that she now realized she had shared. She could only trust that Thor would at least heed her warning not to let Loki have the ring. Who knows what he could - or would - do if he got his hands on the thing.

Well, there wasn't anything she could do about it now. She turned back to her note.

_I'm also sorry to say that I can't be sure when Thor will be able to come and see you again. If all goes well - and I think it will - Thor will have his work cut out for him. The duties of a king weigh heavily on the one destined to bear them. No one knows that better than I._

Well that was certainly cryptic. Jane wasn't sure what Loki meant by this, but the implications for her didn't seem to be anything good.

_But I told you that I was willing to help you, and so I am. We would not have been able to retrieve this ring without you, and despite what you may think of me, I do believe that deserves some consideration. And so I enclose something that I believe will assist you in obtaining what you want. Well - at least one thing that you want, anyway._

Jane turned the first page over before she finished reading it, wondering what Loki could possibly mean by this. When she saw the second page, she gasped. It was a diagram, with closely written notes in tiny script, detailing how to build a machine around the blue stone of Loki's staff. Completed, the machine would open a fissure between itself and the Tesseract - just enough to allow radio waves to pass through. So Loki had kept this promise after all. She flipped back to the first page.

_Do whatever you wish with it - you can toss it in a bin for all I care - but I think you ought to make use of it. After all, you have waited a very long time. Wouldn't you say it's been long enough? I certainly would._

Jane could almost hear the mockery in Loki's voice as she read this, and she let out a sigh of impatience. _Rub it in a little more, will you? _she thought.

_But Jane, there is one more thing I think you ought to consider. I agree with my brother that you are clever, yes. Cleverness, however, will only take you so far. You may believe now that you make the rules, but do you? If I were you, I should think very carefully about whom you trust. Not everyone keeps their promises, as I'm sure you know._

_Oh go fuck yourself_, Jane thought. She almost crumpled the letter in her fist, but there was one line left to go on that side of the page, and, glancing at it, she took it in.

_Just one more thing._

Jane sighed again. _Fine. What? _She turned the page over.

_Before we had our discussion this evening, you asked me why I attacked your realm. Did you know that, in all the time since I was defeated, you're the first person to ask me that question? I think that's very interesting._

_You gave up your question to ask me one posed by someone else. But are you still curious? If so, I'll make you a promise - and as you know, I always keep my promises. In my way._

_I'll see you again, and when I do, I'll tell you why I did it - and it will be the truth._

_-LL_

_P.S. Thor asks to tell you he is sorry for breaking his promise again. I told him that you'd forgive him, and I hope that I am correct. Still, I wonder how many broken promises it is going to take before you don't._

_Maybe I'll find out._

_-Lo'_

Jane hissed out a breath between her teeth. Whatever Loki might be - monster or god or alien, he was certainly a grab-bag full of crazy. She thought about crumpling the note after all, but in the end, decided against it. She laid it on her table, and took up the diagram again.

It seemed mostly intuitive, but there were a few portions of this sketched out machine that required careful consideration. Even with the crabbed, closely written notes that accompanied the drawing, Jane could already tell that she had her work cut out for her. But instead of feeling frustrated, she felt a strange little thrill welling up in her stomach. She could hardly wait to get started.

Jane glanced up at her wall clock - 6:24 a.m. In about an hour and a half she could call Pepper, see if she could talk her way into getting that staff from Tony. The wait seemed agonizingly long. She hopped up from the sofa to refill her cup of coffee, and to fetch a notepad and pencil from her desk - she might as well try to figure out some of the difficult bits while she waited. Before she did, she paused before her balcony door, out towards the skyline beginning to brighten into a sunny day.

She eased the door open and was pleasantly surprised at the sudden puff of warm air that burst into the room. It was the first warm morning in months, and it seemed that today might be the first day of spring. She stood before the open door, breathing it in, tasting the barely warmed concrete and steel of the city, and under it the indolic taste of all the possibility that spring can bring. The very air felt thick and viscous, like warm cream. The whole world was pregnant with possibility.

_Just like me_, she thought, and smiled, and left the door open while she got her cup of coffee.

As she crossed back to her sofa, cup steaming in one hand, a sudden movement on the coffee table startled Jane. A large, black bird had flown through the door and was standing on the table. It was so deeply black that she couldn't see the eye it cocked towards her, or where the feathers gave way to the hardness of its beak. It cocked its head at her, and gave a deep, rasping croak.

The bird then ducked its head, and snatched Loki's diagram in its beak.

"Hey!" Jane said, and without thinking, tossed the coffee in her cup at the bird. She landed a square hit - the scalding liquid splashed the bird. It gave an indignant squawk, dropped the page, and took off with a raucous flap of its wings.

Jane was worried that the bird would bat itself against her window, but it flew straight through the open door again, soaring away toward the skyline before it disappeared from view. Jane closed her door, but watched the bird for as long as she could before she turned back to her sopping coffee table. She snatched up the diagram, but was relieved to see that her coffee had largely missed the page - there was a small spray of brown droplets marring its surface, but no real damage.

By the time Jane had sopped up the mess and gotten a fresh cup of coffee, the whole strange incident had faded from her mind. And fifteen minutes after that, she was so deeply engrossed in her notes, that she forgot she had ever seen the bird at all.


	10. Chapter 10

**Part 4: Asgard**

_Ihrem Ende eilen sie zu,_  
_die so stark in Bestehen sich wähnen._  
_Fast schäm' ich mich,_  
_mit ihnen zu schaffen;_  
_zur leckenden Lohe_  
_mich wider zu wandeln,_  
_spür' ich lockende Lust:_  
_sie aufzuzehren,_  
_doe einst mich gezähmt,_  
_statt mit den Blinden_  
_blöd zu vergehn,_  
_und wären es göttlichste Götter!_  
_Nicht dumm dünkte mich das!_  
_Bendenken will ich's:_  
_wer weiss, was ich tu'!_

_-Loge_

The first person Thor saw when he arrived in Asgard was not Heimdall, but Sif. Her face was tight and anxious, and she started a little when she first saw Thor materialize.

"By Odin's eye," she burst, when Thor had solidified before her, "it is good to see you back."

The Tesseract trip seemed to have cleared Thor's head a good deal. He jerked the Tesseract from Loki's hand without looking at him, and stepped towards Sif. "What is wrong?" he asked. "Has something gone amiss?"

"A messenger arrived but an hour hence," Sif replied, "with news from the front. The jotnar have grown restless waiting for Odin's appearance. They have told Fandral that they will wait until daybreak, but that if either you or Odin do not appear before them, they will attack with the aim of driving through our army and marching on the palace."

"How long?" Thor barked. Asgardian time was slightly different from the time on Jane's section of Midgard, and while he saw that Asgard was now dark with night, he had no idea what time it was.

"Perhaps two hours at most," Sif replied.

"Damn," Thor hissed. If they rode like fire, perhaps they could make it in time - but that left no time for returning to the palace, giving Odin the news, or ensuring that Loki was locked away. Thor glanced to Loki, who seemed to understand. He gave Thor a peevish frown.

"I should have thought," he said, "that my efforts on Midgard would have earned me the right to see this through."

Sif looked from Loki to Thor. "Then you have it?" she asked, her face brightening.

"Yes," Thor replied. His hand tightened around the ring, letting its edge dig into his palm. He had only a moment to decide. He had not wanted Loki there on the battlefield, but it seemed he had little choice in the matter. Heimdall's post was too important for Thor to request that he take Loki into custody, and Thor needed Sif by his side if a fight were to ensue. But what would it matter if Loki did come? What could Loki do to take the ring now? They were no longer on Midgard, Loki could not threaten Jane with harm. He was weaponless and weak, with only his words to serve whatever fell purpose he held.

"All right," Thor said to Loki. "Come along if you like. I care not."

Loki gave a short nod, but said no more.

There was no further time to waste here. "Heimdall, take this-" Thor gave Heimdall the Tesseract case- "and guard it. And - can you send word to my father of what has transpired?"

"I will, my prince," Heimdall replied, and then added, "take care."

Thor tucked his ring into a pocket of his under-tunic. He didn't like to do it. Not having the ring in his hand was one thing, but not having it against his skin at all was worse. But the thought that the ring might slip or drop during the ride was nearly unbearable. He wished that he could just put the thing on, but knew he would give too much away if he did. Instead, he patted where the ring lay, and ignored the sharp look that Loki gave him as he did it.

Thor and Loki's horses had remained with Heimdall during their jaunt to Midgard, and the three of them mounted and rode from the ragged edge of the bifrost, skirting the palace proper and making their way to the edge of the surrounding grounds. Once they moved out into open country, Thor spurred his horse into a full gallop, taking the lead and letting Loki and Sif fall behind.

As Thor felt the animal beneath him ease into its stride, his mind seemed to steady as well. He ran through his plan, his thoughts seeming to fall into a steady rhythm, moving with the hooves of his horse.

_Reach Fandral and Hogun and Volstagg before the jotnar attack. Tell them of the new weapon I have found on Midgard._

Just thinking of the ring warmed him in his core, put him in mind of the smiles that would appear on his friends' faces - slow and cautious at first, and then wider, brighter, as they realized what he was saying. When they realized that despite his humiliating defeat just a day ago, that now, he would win.

_And then ride to the jotnar, the five of us, as we were meant to._

And then he realized _no - not five. Six. The six of us, as we always have, as we always will._

His chest was almost ablaze now, with what he was thinking - right under where the ring was nestled, close to his heart. With the ring he could do anything. What need had he of Mjölnir, after all? It was only a hammer, a weapon of metal that could only be used for brute force. With this ring, this more-than-a-weapon, the possibilities were endless. He could change himself; he could be with Jane and also be a king. He could be the kind of son who would make his father not just proud, but easy in his mind that his kingdom would be safe in Thor's hands. He could be the kind of brother who could bring Loki back to his old self. Not at first, but maybe, with time. He could be anything, and anything would be him, and everything would be all right.

He rode on as the night died, and felt like he could truly fly.

Before long he had to slow his horse to a trot to keep a steady pace without tiring it, and to allow Loki and Sif to catch up. But he still soared over the ground, feeling himself skim over the cool grass below and under the bellies of the night clouds above. He let his mind drift freely before him in the air, only now and then lifting one hand to feel the ring's outline under his tunic.

When they first saw the outskirts of camp, the horizon had only just begun to go gray, and the glimmer of campfires appeared as fairy lights on the edge of the world. Thor took his horse to a gallop again for as long as he could, ignoring the shouts of those on guard who first demanded his identity, and then changed to cheers as they realized who he was. The soldiers cleared a path through the camp, but as fast as they moved, Thor still had to reign his horse in so as not to plow anyone over. The ride through the camp seemed interminable, and the horizon was growing pink by the time he reached his friends' tents at the front.

They were all three of them awake and armored, already prepared for the upcoming battle. They had heard the cries and cheers from camp, evidently, and were craning to see him when he came into view.

Fandral gave a whoop, and raced to help Thor from his saddle, clapping him on the shoulder when it was done. "I knew you would come back with an answer to those jotnar," he said. "What shall it be? Shall we fight?" He looked positively thrilled at the prospect, despite Thor's humiliating defeat the day before.

"My friends-" Thor began, but he was interrupted by, of all people, Hogun.

"Why is he here?" asked Hogun.

Thor turned to see Loki, trailed by Sif, riding through the makeshift camp path toward them. Loki looked about as happy to see his former friends as Hogun looked to see him. Loki gave one glance down his nose at the three crowded around Thor, reigned in his horse, and made a show of dismounting without looking at anyone.

"Loki has performed a great service to us," Thor said. His three friends seemed unconvinced, Hogun going so far as to frown. "I do not blame you for your skepticism," Thor said, "but I have brought back from Midgard-"

"We have it!" cried Sif, who had reigned in behind Loki, but had dashed to the group as fast as she could on foot.

Volstagg looked from Sif to Thor, baffled behind his beard. "You have been to Midgard?"

It took Thor a moment to remember that of course Volstagg, Hogun and Fandral had no idea of what had transpired after Thor had been returned to the palace. "It is a long story, my friends," he said, "but fear not. I have brought back from Midgard the most powerful weapon I have ever seen."

"What?" said Loki behind him. Thor ignored him - it was time to implement his plan. He reached into his tunic, had a moment of panic when his fingers closed only over cloth - and then he had it, there, in his fingers. He pulled the ring out, holding it up to let it gleam in the first rays of dawn. All of his friends sucked in their breath at the sight of it - as well they should, Thor thought. It was so beautiful, so perfect, that he could hardly take his eyes off of it himself.

"Thor, what are you doing?" Loki rasped behind him, but Thor ignored him.

"I have seen this ring work untold wonders," Thor told Valstagg and Hogun and Fandral and Sif. "It has power beyond the dreams of gods and men. With this, I can drive the giants back to jotunheim, and ensure they never plague our people again."

Fandral and Volstagg let out a cheer at this, and Sif looked radiant, as though her heart would burst if she let out a sound.

"_Thor_," shouted Loki behind him, but he was cut off quickly. Thor turned to see that Hogun had crept around and now had Loki, pinning his arms behind his back.

"He was trying to ambush you," explained Hogun quietly, as Loki struggled in his grip. "Stay still," he warned Loki. He jerked Loki's arms back, knocking Loki off balance. Seeing Loki, pinned by Hogun and struggling to regain his feet was quite comic. Behind him, Thor could hear Volstagg begin to chortle in his rumbling _basso profundo_.

"Thor," Loki continued, ignoring Hogun as best he could, "You cannot take this ring for yourself - you know that. You have to give it to the jotnar _now_."

Fandral looked from Loki to Thor, his expression incredulous. "_Give_ the ring to the jotnar? This ring you say has power beyond imagining? Just _give_ it them?" He began to chuckle himself. "Loki, I thought you'd gone a bit mad, but truly, you are beyond all reason."

"It's what we came to do," insisted Loki, and at this, Thor felt himself begin to lose his temper.

"What _we_ came to do?" Thor shouted. "No, what _I_ came to do."

"Then do it!" Loki said. "Give the ring to the jotnar and let the promise be kept!" He was flushed, and his eyes betrayed not just fear, but sheer panic.

"Do you take me for a fool, Loki?" asked Thor, and surprised himself when he felt tears sting his eyes upon saying this. "You do. You do. You have always thought of me as a great stupid brute who could only blindly bash at things with his hammer - while you were always the superior one, making snide remarks that you thought I didn't understand. But I did understand, brother, and I understand you now."

Loki was staring at Thor, open-mouthed. Even Hogun seemed taken aback, a line forming between his eyebrows.

"I know your purpose, Loki," insisted Thor. "I know you intended to take the ring and give it to whomever you made that bargain for the Chitauri. Well you won't have it!"

Now Fandral and Volstagg had dropped their smiles. "What-" began Fandral, but then Sif spoke over him.

"Thor - how could he give the ring to the masters of the Chitauri if he meant to give it to the jotnar?"

Thor ignored the question. "The jotnar cannot have it!" he bellowed. "No one can have the ring but me, do you understand?" He looked wildly around him, at the growing concern on his friends' faces.

Everyone began to talk at once. Sif whipped her head to Loki and snapped "what have you done to him?"

Volstagg shouted - a little louder than necessary- "Perhaps we should have some breakfast and settle-"

Hogun gripped Loki's arms more tightly, hissing "I told you to stay _still_."

Fandral shouted above them all. "It is the height of folly to argue in this manner!" he said in a voice that shut everyone else up. "Look - dawn rises and the jotnar with it. Our priority is to protect our realm - can any of you deny this?"

The only ones who had not spoken were Thor and Loki who remained, staring at each other. Thor tore his gaze away to look at the pale gold glimmer in the east. "Yes," he said. "Let us fight. For Asgard."

"_No!_" shouted Loki, his voice rising nearly to a shriek. He gave a tremendous wrench, freed himself from Hogun's grasp, and ran to Thor, snatching at his arm. Thor shrugged Loki off as easily as he would have pushed aside a curtain, but Loki persisted, grabbing at him again.

"Thor," he said, sounding as though he was struggling to keep his voice calm. "Listen to me. To keep this ring would mean your death."

"As though you cared whether I died!" burst Thor, turning on Loki. "How many times have you tried to kill me? Is this another attempt on my life, Loki?"

Loki stared up at Thor, but said nothing.

Thor scoffed. "I have had done with your deceit," he said, turning away, and beginning to stride back to his horse.

"_Thor!_" he heard Loki shout behind him, the wreck he'd made of his voice nearly spent. "You don't understand what this ring is or what it can do - you must let the ring go to become its master!"

Thor fought the urge to look back at Loki, and lost. His brother stared up at him, his eyes pleading, looking so small that Thor found him rather pathetic.

"Thor," Loki repeated, "you must trust me-"

At this, Thor felt the last remaining threads of his temper snap. He whirled around and came at Loki in a rush. He slammed into him, feeling his brother's too-frail form give way against the blow. Thor grasped Loki's shoulders to hold him up, and to bring Loki's face to his own.

"Trust _you_?" Thor whispered. "After everything you have done, all that has transpired, and you ask me to_ trust_ you?" He shook Loki, watching with satisfaction as Loki's head snapped back and forth on his neck. Thor was vaguely aware that the ground was rumbling with the approach of the jotun army. It would be so easy, Thor reflected, to have an end to all his trouble with Loki, before the jotnar could arrive. And he wanted to do it. If there was a time to make Loki pay in pain for his crimes, it was now. And then, there was the ring - he wanted it now, so badly that he could not bear to even hear the slightest word against his keeping it. He realized, then and there, that he would kill Loki to keep the ring, if it came to that.

"Give me one reason," Thor said, "and if you lie, I'll break your neck where you stand. Give me _one_ reason why I should trust _you_."

They stared at each other, an inch apart.

Loki shook his head, a movement so slight he hardly seemed to move, and when he spoke, it was in a barely audible voice.

"I can't."

Thor stared at his brother for one last, long moment, then slowly released Loki's shoulders from his grip. Then he strode to his horse without looking back.

By the time Thor had mounted, the jotnar were clearly visible in the distance, towering upon the horizon. Fandral, Hogun and Sif had already mounted, and Volstagg was in the process of heaving himself into his own saddle, which required the help of two squires.

"Let us-" started Fandral, but Thor silenced him with a quick shake of his head.

"No," he said. "I will ride to them alone. As I was meant to."

Thor's friends stared at him, Sif's lips pressed so tightly together that they had turned white. But it was she who said "yes. Go, my friend."

Thor bowed his head, then wheeled his horse around to face the jotun army.

"Your armor!" Volstagg shouted, having finally mounted successfully.

Thor had already spurred into a trot, but he turned in the saddle to look behind. "I need no armor," he said, and he managed to make his voice cheerful. His four friends were a mounted vigil behind him. His brother stood apart, his shoulders slumped with his defeat. Thor turned back, and rode toward the two leaders of the jotnar.

"Ah," the giant on the left said when Thor had gotten close enough to hear. "The princeling returns. Have you a message from the Allfather?"

Thor halted, his horse rearing a bit at the sudden force of the stop. "I speak," he shouted, "for myself."

The giants looked at each other, and the giant on the right began to ball his hand into a fist.

Thor's fist was clenched so tight around the ring in his hand, he thought it might leave a permanent groove in his palm. Absurdly, he began to feel sorry for these giants, who had come so far after so much time.

"What are your names?" he asked them.

This seemed to befuddle the giants. They paused for a moment before the giant on the left answered him. "I am called Fasolt," he said. "My brother is Fafner."

"Well met then, Fasolt and Fafner," Thor said. "I understand that I have you to thank for the palace that I have since childhood called my home."

Fasolt smiled in a pleased way, but Fafner just scowled. "Your thanks are not sufficient," he said.

"I understand that," Thor said. "You have come to receive your payment."

"That is so," Fasolt said. "But I see no maiden. That is what was agreed - Freia the fair."

"Freia is an Aesir," Thor replied, "not a payment."

"Then we take her by force," Fafner growled. He did not seem very put out by this prospect.

Thor lifted his hand and opened it, revealing to the morning sky the ring that lay in his palm. It was so utterly beautiful that for a moment, his heart broke just to see its sheen reflecting the dawn. He took a deep breath.

"Jotnar," he said. "I offer you an exchange. I have in my possession a ring, wrought by a nibel, and bearing immense power. I myself have seen its magic at work. It has the power to change shapes, to grant youth and long life, to attract wealth. He who wields it wears on his hand all the strength of the nine realms. Know you of this object?"

The jotnar hesitated, again looking at each other. "I have heard of such an object," Fasolt said, "but only that it was lost in the Midgardian war." He sounded both guarded and greedy.

"It is lost no longer," Thor said, "and I offer it to you in exchange for the freedom of Freia." He held his palm before him, and spurred his horse into a walk toward the giants. They stood still, waiting, until he was close enough that they could reach him. Delicately, Fasolt reached down and plucked the ring from Thor's palm. He held it up to the light, then held it in his own hand, letting the sun glint from the gold. Fafner, too, stared at the ring although hypnotized by its beauty.

"Jotnar," Thor said, "do you accept this ring? Is my father's promise kept?"

The giants did not answer, and Thor felt himself hold his breath.

Finally, Fasolt breathed in a whisper, "we accept this price."

And suddenly Thor felt a strange popping sensation in his head, as though he had descended too quickly from a flight with Mjölnir.

_Mjölnir!_

He closed his eyes and thrust his right hand out toward the jotun army, and he felt it answer the call, the strange invisible string between himself and hammer snapping back into place as Mjölnir hurtled toward him. It landed in his palm with a thick thwack, and suddenly, Thor was whole.

He glanced up, but the giant brothers had not moved. They both stood still, staring at the ring in Fasolt's hand. Oddly, the ring seemed to have grown until it looked large enough to fit a giant's finger.

_But which giant?_ Thor suddenly thought, and he felt his stomach suddenly dip with dread.

He wheeled his horse around and rode hard toward his friends, who he could see waving to him in the distance. He glanced behind him, but every time he did, the giants still held their positions.

When he reached his own army, Volstagg, Hogun, Fandral and Sif's eyes were full of questions, but Loki's held a grim triumph.

"Watch," was all Loki said, and they all turned toward the giants in the distance.

Thor turned back. The two giants stood still, hovering over the ring in Fasolt's palm. Neither moved for a very long time, but if Thor or one of his friends made the slightest movement, Loki gave a_ hssst_ for quiet.

Finally, so quickly that Thor almost missed the movement, Fafner brought his hand up to snatch the ring in his brother's hand. Fasolt was too quick for him - he jerked his hand back, out of Fafner's reach, and gave Fafner a resentful glare.

"_Ahhh_," Loki said, almost a sigh. "There they go."

The jotnar began to argue with each other, too distant to be understood, but near enough that the low rumble of their voices seemed to vibrate into the bones of the onlookers. The argument became more heated, more violent. Fafner gave another snatch at the ring, and Fasolt stepped back - then took a swing at Fafner with one meaty fist. Fafner was not so fast as Fasolt - the blow hit him squarely on the side of his head, and he reeled to the side.

Neither giant spoke any more. They only began to fight in earnest. Their movements were slow and cumbersome; they seemed to have to fight the heft and weight of their own bodies before they could fight one another. Only half the blows they attempted met their mark, but when they hit home, they hit with such force that Thor wondered how he had survived Fasolt's strength in the first place. Before long, Fafner's nose was streaming with blood that sprayed in the air in fat droplets every time Fasolt landed his fist; Fasolt's eyes were purple and streaming. Behind them, the front line of the jotun army seemed disturbed by the fight. They muttered and clustered together, no longer bothering to maintain their ranks.

Thor's sense of dread had deepened into horror as he watched the brothers fight. Was this what he had been prepared to do to keep the ring for himself? It no longer seemed the vital part of him that it had seemed just moments before he had willingly given it to the jotnar. What exactly had he just escaped?

The giants were nearing the end of their fight, it seemed. Fasolt had Fafner on the ground, striking him over and over with the fist he had closed around the ring - he had not had time to put it on yet. Fafner was trying to crawl away, and after what seemed an eternity, Fasolt let him go. He paid no more heed to his brother, who stumbled to his feet, and began to totter toward the front line of the jotun army. Fasolt turned to the ring cradled in his palm, holding it to his face, stroking it with one finger. He was blind to every sight other than the ring - and this is where he made his mistake.

Fafner had nearly reached the front line of the jotun army. He still staggered, seeming barely able to keep his feet. But once he neared the soldiers, he suddenly straightened. With a blindingly fast movement, he snatched up a huge, heavy club from a jotun soldier, then turned back toward Fasolt. When he began to run, his footsteps were so light that Thor could hardly believe this was the same crashing, blundering giant he had seen only moments before. Fafner hardly made a sound as his feet touched the earth - and his brother did not hear him. So when he swung the club in an arc at Fasolt's head, Fasolt did not even turn around before the club struck him just behind the ear.

Fasolt was knocked to the ground with the force of the blow, but he gripped the ring in his fist, not letting it fall as he hit the earth with a resounding crash. In an instant, Fafner was upon him, club raised in one fist. He brought it down on Fasolt's head once - twice - three times. The sound of the club hitting Fasolt's face made a wet, hideous thunk. Fasolt's features were obliterated as the club reduced his face to a pulp. His body struggled, then twitched, then was still.

Thor looked around at his friends. Their faces were echos of horror as they watched Fafner beat his brother to death. But when Thor looked at Loki, he found that Loki's expression was both calm, and oddly familiar. He stared at the giants with an intent, almost rapt gaze, one that Thor was certain he'd seen before. His mind wandered for a moment, wondering what it reminded him of. When the memory did come to him, it came on so powerfully that it was akin to being engulfed in an ocean swell.

* * *

It had been long ago, he and Loki still boys, young enough to still be having lessons with the Shaper, learning to play the harp. Loki had been clever but dispassionate about music. Thor had been utterly bored with it, and anything that didn't involve learning to fight, ride, or hunt.

That day, the day Thor remembered, he'd been especially bored but barely able to keep still. It was the first day of the harvest festival, and it would be the first year that Thor would be allowed to attend the fair in the palace grounds himself - with no nanny hovering over his shoulder, watching his every move, warning him against eating too many sweets or running too fast or having any fun at all. He was twitching with longing to run out of the lesson room, away from the Shaper's dry instruction, find Sif and dash to the fair, to finally - for the first time in his life, it felt like - have some real _fun_.

But first it was endless scales, major scales then minor, then back to major, the Shaper barely repressing sighs of irritation as Thor flubbed one note after another, Loki - who had executed his scales perfectly - giving Thor sidelong glances of sheer contempt.

_wouldn't dare look at me like that on the training grounds with no teacher in sight we'll see how he likes it when we have swords in hand not harps_

When the seemingly interminable lesson finally came to an end, Thor hadn't bothered to put his harp away - he just dropped it and dashed out the door. The Shaper was always after him about it, but he couldn't do anything really - he couldn't reprimand a prince of Asgard.

Thor thought that Loki would probably stay behind, put the harps away, simper up to the Shaper like he _always_ did, he was so annoying. But he heard running steps behind him, and then Loki's voice.

"Thor - wait!"

_Not so smug now_, Thor thought, and ran faster. He heard Loki start to pant and fall back behind him. Thor smirked - he could run circles around Loki, always could. He veered around a corner, and nearly knocked down his mother as she walked with Freia and a bevy of ladies in waiting.

All of the ladies laughed indulgently - even Frigga, as she steadied herself on her feet. "What's the hurry, darling?" Frigga asked, laying a cool hand on Thor's cheek.

"Mother - I-" Thor said, gasping, a little out of breath himself. "The festival-"

"Oh, yes, of course," she said, giving a small smile to Freia. "Where is Jodis?"

"_Mother_," Thor said, panicking. "You _said_ I could go without Jodis today!"

Frigga laughed again, deep in her throat. "Of course you can, darling, have a lovely time." A thrill went right through Thor - he was _going_.

And then Frigga said the worst four words that she could have possibly said at that moment: "And take your brother."

"_Mo_therr!" Thor wailed. But Frigga's face went so stern that Thor knew there would be no use in arguing any further. "Yes, Mother," he said, resigned. When he turned, he saw that Loki had caught up with him, and was standing at the other end of the hall, very still and silent. Thor began walking to him.

Freia said, behind him, "he shouldn't have to take _that_, Frigga, he deserves to be with his own-"

"Loki is Thor's brother," Frigga said, in a tone of voice that silenced Freia's arguments as swiftly as they had silenced Thor's.

"Come _on_," Thor muttered at Loki as he passed him. As soon as he turned the corner, away from Frigga's line of sight, he broke into a run again.

"Thor, _wait!_" Loki shouted, and took off after him.

Thor raced to the stables, where he'd agreed to meet Sif. She at least had been let out of lessons early for the festival, and she was gloating about it. By the looks of things, she had spent her time waiting for Thor to arrive grooming her pony, which she'd ambitiously named Grane.

"I waited for ages!" she said, turning, as Thor came into view. But her smile dropped as soon as Loki burst in, puffing, behind him.

"Him?" she said. "Do we have to take_ him_?"

"Mother said," Thor groused.

"Well we're not going to have any fun if we have to baby-sit!" Sif said, her frown now a scowl.

A year ago, Loki would have thrown a fit at this, insisting he was _not_ a baby, and only making himself look more babyish in Thor's opinion. Now he just returned Sif's scowl and stayed silent.

"Mother _said_," Thor repeated.

"Well fine," Sif said. She held up a hand and Grane nuzzled into her palm. Sif clucked reassuringly, and patted Grane's nose. Then she said good bye, and strode over to Thor. They both looked at Loki.

"I guess you can come with us," Sif said, and she looked sidelong at Thor, a gleam in her eye.

Thor caught her meaning immediately. "Yeah," he said, "if you can catch up!"

Thor and Sif took off running, and Loki, who was already badly winded, launched himself after them, shouting "_wait!_" for as long as his breath held out. It wasn't very long.

Thor didn't run as fast as he could, actually, although Sif did. Thor was well aware that if Loki got lost, Sif wouldn't get in trouble, but he certainly would. His mother would be furious, and he'd been subject to enough of her lectures to dread Frigga's anger. His father, though - that would be even worse. He wouldn't say anything, just look at Thor for a long time out of his one clear, blue eye, waiting in silence until Thor felt about to pop from dreadful anticipation. And finally, he would ask, in a very low, quiet voice, how Thor thought his actions befitted a future king. And Thor would stand there, furious and embarrassed, hot with shame, until he gave an explanation that Odin deemed satisfactory.

So Thor held back his speed, letting Loki trail behind just in sight, but not slowing down enough for Sif to think he was going soft.

The makeshift fairgrounds had been set up in one of the plain, flat expanses of the palace ground, wide enough to accommodate the crowds of Asgardians who both staffed and visited the harvest festival each year. It was the most important festival in Asgard, and it spanned a solid week of feasting, drinking the first wine of the season, and lighting the first bonfires that would blaze through the winter. It was, in Thor's opinion, the most exciting time of year, and as the colored banners and tents of the fairground came into view, he was sorely tempted to put on a burst of speed and leave both Loki and Sif behind.

Even before they hit the fairground, they ran into a crowd, and were forced to slow and weave their way through the crush of people. The sights and smells were nearly overwhelming, and Sif didn't even grumble at Loki's catching up with them in her rapture.

"What should we do first?" she asked. Thor could hardly answer. He wanted to find the largest fried cake at the fair and eat it all, to watch the combats in the grounds - wrestling, lancers, jousts, fencing, and broadsword fights. He wanted to find something beautiful to buy his mother with his pocket money. But first-

Thor's thoughts were interrupted by a loud cheer nearby. Thor and Sif looked at each other without needing to say a word, and began to race through the crowd toward the sound.

It was a crowd of mostly children, who were settling around a large puppet theater in which a show had begun. Thor and Sif hovered on the outskirts of the crowd, considering. The puppets seemed to be engaged in a sort of swordfight, and while the puppeteer was skilled, it seemed a bit simple.

"This looks stupid," Loki said as he came up behind them.

At the same time, the puppet sword fight concluded with the first puppet chopping the second puppet's arm off with a realistic looking spray of blood emerging from the stump.

Sif and Thor needed no further motivation. They pushed through the crowd to take seats at the front, and the crowd made way for them. Thor was a prince, after all - he never had to reserve a seat for himself.

It was the best puppet show Thor had ever seen. The main character was "Olaf the Unconquered," a swaggering Asgardian who cut his way through swathes of jotnar, svartalfar, and rogue vanir. The special effects were astounding - sprays of blood that spattered those in the front row, limbs that really came off, and tiny weapons - axes, clubs and swords - whose sharp points glimmered in the afternoon sun.

The whole crowd was enraptured at the sight. They called out warnings when enemies tried to sneak up on Olaf, cheered as Olaf won victory after victory - well, the whole crowd, except Loki. He sat beside Thor, with an expression of boredom that bordered on disgust.

"Well what's wrong?" asked Thor during a lull in the action.

"This is stupid," Loki said, "all he does is hit things with swords. And puppet shows are for babies anyway."

"Nobody asked you to come along," said Sif in a haughty ladies' voice.

"Mother said-" Loki began to protest, but Thor cut him off.

"Mother just wanted you out from behind her skirts," he said. "She's as sick of you as I am." He felt a little twinge of guilt as he said it, and wondered if Loki would cry, or tell on him. But Loki stayed quiet, turning back to the show without further protest.

The tone of the show changed rather abruptly around that point. Olaf, returning home from his great victories, was told by his wife, Olann, that he was to watch the baby while she went out. Olaf protested that he didn't know how to watch a baby, but she insisted, finally shoving the little puppet baby into Olaf's puppet hands and storming off. The baby began to cry almost immediately, and to get it to stop, Olaf hit its head against the rafters of his house, killing it instantly.

Thor wasn't sure that this was very funny, but the crowd seemed to enjoy it. Everyone, including Sif, was laughing uproariously, so Thor joined in. It was only a puppet show, after all. Loki sat still and silent, scowling up at the stage, which made Thor clap and laugh harder - just to show him.

When Olann came back to the house and saw the baby, she began to screech, so Olaf dispatched her with his huge club to more laughter and shouts of approval from the audience.

Now Olaf was in trouble though - a regiment of soldiers came to arrest him for the murders, and take him away to have his head chopped off. But when they reached the executioner, Olaf put his cleverest plan into play. He pretended to be too stupid to understand how to properly lay his head on the block, and insisted that the headsman show him how to do it by example. When the headsman relented, Olaf seized the man's axe, and chopped his head off, spraying the front row of the audience with a hilarious wash of blood - which turned out to be a sweet berry syrup, to the children's' delight.

Thor had glanced at Loki during the scene for no real reason, and when he did, he'd received a shock. Loki's scowl had gone, replaced by a rapt, almost dreamy expression that was not so much indicative of enjoyment as intense concentration. He kept the expression as Olaf played his trick, and when the splatter of the execution sprayed tiny red droplets across his face, he did not even move to wipe them off.

* * *

It was this same expression that was on Loki's face now, as he watched the jotun brothers reenact the violent pantomime they had watched on the fair stage, so long ago.

_And now whose hand is on the strings_, Thor found himself thinking, _and whose head is on the block_?

Fafner had finished his act of carnage, and stood for a moment over his brother. Then he dove, scrambling for Fasolt's fist, prying it open to retrieve the ring. WIthout hesitation, he jammed it on his finger, holding his hand up to admire the sight of the gleaming gold. But a rumbling behind him caused him to start, and look back.

The jotun army had watched in silence as Fafner killed Fasolt, but they were not silent any longer. They had begun to talk amongst themselves and, Thor thought, they did not look particularly happy.

Fafner seemed to share this opinion. He turned his head one way, and then the other, seeming to search for a way out. Thor raised his hand, signalling his own army to watch and wait - if need be, they could help the Jotnar subdue Fafner.

_and maybe get the ring back_ he thought, before he could stop himself.

The jotnar had begun to lift their weapons and assemble themselves, and Thor heard the army behind him do the same. When Fafner turned to look back at him, THor could see sudden panic in the jotun's eyes.

One of the jotun army had taken to the front of the line, and now raised a broadsword within a meaty fist. He held the sword aloft for a moment, then with a roar, pointed it at Fafner.

The entire jotun hoard began to scream, and the sound seemed to penetrate the entirety of the realm. They charged at Fafner, who began to run, cutting first toward Thor's army, and then to the right, trying to skirt the space between the two forces. The front line of the jotnar rapidly descended upon Fafner and had almost engulfed him when, suddenly, he transformed into a huge dragon.

He was a deep gray, veined with a subtle glimmer, as though he were made of granite. He had a thick beard beneath his snout, and his claws scrabbled in the air as he fought for height. His wings caught the air, and he ascended, climbing higher until he was a mere speck. He darted behind a cloud, and was lost to sight.

The jotun army stared as their former leader vanished into the air, bearded jaws agape, massive weapons clutched in their fists.

Thor turned to his friends - Fandral, Hogun, Volstagg and Sif looked just as shocked as the jotnar did, squinting into the sky where the dragon had been only moments before. Thor then turned to Loki, who still held his intent expression.

Loki seemed to sense he was being watched, and flicked his eyes to Thor. "What's wrong?" he rasped. "Didn't you enjoy it?"

Loki's calculated nonchalance was irritating, and Thor snapped at him in annoyance. "No, I don't particularly enjoy watching anyone stab his brother in the back!"

Loki was unruffled by the comment. He turned back to watch the sky with the same flat look in his eyes.

"I don't see why," he said. "After all, I stabbed _you_ in the front."


End file.
